Word of the Day for Thursday September 9, 2004
adage \AD-ij\, noun:
An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a
proverb.
Did she sense the proverbial limp in my walk: proverbial as
the Somali adage in which it is said that a lie has a lame
leg, truth a healthy one.
--Nuruddin Farah, [1]Secrets
We may find out too late the wisdom of the adage that
cautions us to be careful what we wish for lest we get it.
--Charles Murray, [2]What It Means to Be a Libertarian
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,"
the old adage goes.
--Zachary Karabell "No Left Turn," [3]New York Times,
September 24, 2000
_________________________________________________________
Adage derives from the Latin adagium (akin to aio, "I say").
Trivia: It is sometimes said that the expression "old adage"
is redundant, since an adage is by definition a saying with
some tradition behind it. But the first recorded instance of
the word in the [4]Oxford English Dictionary occurs in the
phrase "old adage": "He forgat the olde adage, saynge in tyme
of peace provyde for warre."
Synonyms: aphorism, proverb, saw, saying. [5]Find more at
Thesaurus.com.
www.dictionary.com
adage \AD-ij\, noun:
An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a
proverb.
Did she sense the proverbial limp in my walk: proverbial as
the Somali adage in which it is said that a lie has a lame
leg, truth a healthy one.
--Nuruddin Farah, [1]Secrets
We may find out too late the wisdom of the adage that
cautions us to be careful what we wish for lest we get it.
--Charles Murray, [2]What It Means to Be a Libertarian
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,"
the old adage goes.
--Zachary Karabell "No Left Turn," [3]New York Times,
September 24, 2000
_________________________________________________________
Adage derives from the Latin adagium (akin to aio, "I say").
Trivia: It is sometimes said that the expression "old adage"
is redundant, since an adage is by definition a saying with
some tradition behind it. But the first recorded instance of
the word in the [4]Oxford English Dictionary occurs in the
phrase "old adage": "He forgat the olde adage, saynge in tyme
of peace provyde for warre."
Synonyms: aphorism, proverb, saw, saying. [5]Find more at
Thesaurus.com.
www.dictionary.com
