Proverb and Idioms

PROVERB

Proverb is a brief, simple and popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience or common sense. A proverb may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance. The reason of popularity is due to its usage in spoken language as well as in the folk literature. Some authors twist and bend proverbs and create anti-proverbs to add literary effects to their works. However, in poetry, poets use proverbs strategically by employing some parts of them in poems’ titles such as Lord Kennet has written a poem, A Bird in the Bush, which is a popular proverb. Some poems contain multiple proverbs like Paul Muldoon’s poem Symposium.

There are some examples of proverb:

·         Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

·         Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.

·         Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

·         All that glitters is not gold.

·         An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.

·         The old horse in the stable still yearns to run

Examples proverb in literature:

1.      From Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:

“If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings.”

If you remove the dirt of your ancestors, you can have a better future. Everyone can build his/her own fame.

“A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.”

Everything happens for a reason and for something not for nothingness.

“A child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.”

Children who obey their mothers are not punished.

2.      From William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

“The weakest goes to the wall.”

The weak people are never favored.

“He that is strucken blind cannot forget

The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.”

A man who loses his eyesight can never forget the importance of lost eyesight.

“One fire burns out another’s burning,

One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.”

(http://literarydevices.net/proverb/)

IDIOM

Idioms exist in every language. An idiom is a word or phrase that is not taken literally, like “bought the farm” has nothing to do with purchasing real estate, but refers to dying. Idiom also refers to a dialect or jargon of a group of people, either in a certain region or a group with common interests, like in science, music, art, or business.

Common idioms that refer to people include:

• A chip on your shoulder - means you are holding a grudge
• High as a kite - means you are drunk or on drugs
• Sick as a dog - means you are very ill

Idioms that refer to your actions would be:

• Rub someone the wrong way - meaning to annoy or bother
• Jump the gun - would mean to be doing something early
• Pay the piper - means you need to face the consequences of your actions

Some idioms use color words to convey other meanings. For example, there are several that use the word “blue:”

• “The blues” can refer to both a style of music and feeling sad.
• If something occurs rarely, it is said to happen “once in a blue moon”, because a blue moon is two full moons in one month, which doesn’t happen often.
• “Out of the blue” means something happens that was unexpected.  

Learning a Language with Idioms

Because of idioms, learning a language can be complicated. After you can conjugate verbs, and know a lot of words, you may still have difficulty speaking the language with native users.

This is partly due to the use of idioms and would also depend of which region of a country you were in. Idiom usage is not just regional, but also varies according to people’s interests and social groups.

The best way to pick up on the meaning of certain idioms would be to converse with people and ask them for a clarification of the idiom if you are not clear about the idiom they used. There are also sites on the Internet which will help explain the meaning of idioms.  

Idioms In the Arts

There are many idioms in the field of music.

• If you “fine tune” something, you make small improvements to it.
• “Changing your tune” means changing your mind.
• If you are “whistling Dixie” or “whistling in the dark” you are overly positive about something.
• If you try and make a decision too early without knowing all the facts, people may tell you that “it’s not over ‘till the fat lady sings.”

Drama and dance have idioms, too, like:

• “Break a leg” means good luck.
• If you are a “ham” you overact.
• If you say, “it takes two to tango” you mean that more than one person is at fault or involved.
• If you “tap dance” your way out of a sticky situation, then that implies that you get out of it in a clever way.
• Being “in the spotlight” means you are the center of attention.

Remember, a group of people with shared interests such as the arts or business will have their own idioms. As with all idioms it will be easier to understand the idioms if you concentrate on what is being said and ask questions about the meanings of the idioms.

(http://examples.yourdictionary.com/idiom.html)