A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

(Marcin) #1

fall see (noun) hasty CLIMBERS have sudden falls; PRIDE goes before a fall; (verb) the
APPLE never falls far from the tree; BETWEEN two stools one falls to the ground; the
BIGGER they are, the harder they fall; when the BLIND lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch; the BREAD never falls but on its buttered side; a REED before the wind lives on, while
mighty oaks do fall; if the SKY falls we shall catch larks; when THIEVES fall out, honest men
come by their own; as a TREE falls, so shall it lie; UNITED we stand, divided we fall.


fame see COMMON fame is seldom to blame.

FAMILIARITY breeds contempt

Cf. ST. AUGUSTINE Scala Paradisi 8 (Migne 40, col. 1001) vulgare proverbium est, quod
nimia familiaritas parit contemptum, it is a common proverb, that too much familiarity breeds
contempt.


c 1386 CHAUCER Tale of Melibee 1. 1685 Men seyn that ‘over-greet hoomlynesse
[familiarity] engendreth dispreisynge’. 1539 R. TAVERNER Garden of WisdomII. 4vHys
specyall frendes counsailled him to beware, least his ouermuche familiaritie myght
breade him contempte. 1654 T. FULLER Comment on Ruth 176 With base and sordid
natures familiarity breeds contempt. 1869 TROLLOPE He knew He was Right II. lvi.
Perhaps, if I heard Tennyson talking every day, I shouldn’t read Tennyson. Familiarity
does breed contempt. 1928 D. H. LAWRENCE Phoenix II (1968) 598 We say..
Familiarity breeds contempt. .. That is only partly true. It has taken some races of men
thousands of years to become contemptuous of the moon. 2002 Washington Times 12 Jan.
All What’s that saying about familiarity breeding contempt? By now, [Daniel] Snyder
doesn’t seem to think much of any of them. familiarity

The FAMILY that prays together stays together

The saying was invented by Al Scalpone, a professional commercial-writer, and was used
as the slogan of the Roman Catholic Family Rosary Crusade by Father Patrick Peyton (P.
Peyton, All for Her, 1967). The crusade began in 1942 and the slogan was apparently first
broadcast on 6 Mar. 1947 during the radio programme Family Theater of the Air. The Crusade
in Britain started in 1952, and the expression now has many (often humorous) variant forms.


1948 St. Joseph Mag. (Oregon) Apr. 3 ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this
world dreams of’, and ‘The family that prays together stays together.’ Such religious
themes are hardly what one would expect to hear propounded over the air waves of our
modern radio. 1954 Parents’ Magazine Feb. 119 The family that plays together stays
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