Proverb

A proverb is a short popular expression that usually conveys wisdom, advice, or a commonly held truth. Although proverbs may reflect the contemporary worldview of a particular era and region, their origins are often perceived as being ancient and timeless. Almost every society in the world has its own distinct set of proverbs, some of which likely evolved from the wisdom of other cultures. Proverbs are generally considered to be metaphorical—statements with an indirect or figurative meaning; those with more literal meanings are sometimes called maxims or aphorisms. Historically, religious works such as the Bible and philosophical writings from ancient cultures spawned proverbs that have proliferated throughout the centuries. In the modern era, proverbs have originated from such wide-ranging sources as television and film, popular literature, the Internet, and even graffiti.

Early History

Evidence suggests the recording of wisdom in the form of proverbs is a practice as old as language itself. Archaeologists have discovered collections of proverbs on Sumerian cuneiform tablets dating from about 2500 B.C.E.—a period corresponding to the time of the earliest known true writing systems. Several books of the Biblical Old Testament include sayings and advice meant to keep people on a righteous path. The book of Proverbs, for instance, contains a collection of one-line warnings and observations on how to live a moral and ethical life. One of the better-known examples is Proverb 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." The book of Proverbs and several other biblical works have been attributed to King Solomon, a legendary ruler known for his great wisdom. While Solomon is said to have lived about the tenth century B.C.E., evidence suggests that some of the sayings originated hundreds of years earlier in Egyptian writings.

The ancient Greeks of the first millennium B.C.E. developed a tradition of thought that established the basis for much of Western philosophy and logic. The musings of philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were often compiled into collections of proverbs that influenced succeeding generations. Roman philosophers and historians such as Seneca and Plutarch built on this Greek tradition and recorded their own collections of wisdom. The word proverb derived from the language of Rome. It comes from the Latin word proverbium, a combination of the prefix pro-, meaning "put forth," and the word verbum, for "word."

The recording of proverbial wisdom was not exclusive to the cultures of the Mediterranean. The societies of the Middle East, India, and China also compiled sage advice that was passed on throughout the generations. Arguably, the most famous Eastern proverbs are attributed to Confucius, a Chinese philosopher who is believed to have lived about the sixth century B.C.E. Confucius was highly influential in Chinese culture and founded a religious philosophy known as Confucianism. The teachings of Confucius inspired many proverbs that remain popular in the modern era.

While Western culture and literature took a step back at the onset of the medieval period, many proverbs became part of the era's oral tradition and were later preserved by authors in the early Renaissance. Dutch scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam is noted for compiling hundreds of Biblical and classical proverbs in his work, Adagia, published in 1500. The proverbs developed during the medieval period were often based in folklore and concerned homespun examples of everyday wisdom. For example, the famous English proverb "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" originated in the sixteenth century as a reminder to value goals already accomplished rather than taking unnecessary risks.

With the introduction of the printing press to Europe in the fifteenth century, written texts became more accessible in the centuries that followed. The almanac, a collection of astronomical data and weather predictions interspersed with humorous quotes and folksy proverbs, became one of the more popular printed works. Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, printed from the 1730s to the 1750s, contained proverbs usually focused on the values of frugality, morality, and hard work. Some of the more famous ones include, "early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" and "God helps those who help themselves."

Topic Today

By the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the proliferation of mass media made proverbs more readily available, and it helped elevate quotations by famous people into the realm of cultural tradition. Figures such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, and baseball player Yogi Berra had their words turned into proverbial wisdom. In the mid-1960s, proverbs began appearing in urban settings as graffiti. While some were presented in a humorous context, others were painted as a form of protest. In Germany, which was divided into eastern and western sections prior to 1989, proverbial graffiti was often left on the Berlin Wall in opposition to the Communist policies of East Germany.

The film, television, and music industries also became a source of modern proverbs when lyrics and screen dialog were adopted and disseminated as wisdom. The 1994 film Forrest Gump produced so many proverbial sayings that they became known as "Gumpisms." One of the film's most famous lines, "My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get," has achieved almost iconic status as a modern proverb.

With the rise of computer technology, proverbs have become part of the Internet landscape with lists of wise sayings readily available to be read or shared across social media platforms. While traditional proverbs remain popular, the Internet has given rise to a type of parody that modifies existing axioms into comedic sayings. Examples such as "change is inevitable, except from a vending machine," are not only shared online as comical memes but also are collected into book form or find their way onto items such as t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Bibliography

Alter, Robert. The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. W.W. Norton & Company, 2010.

Bernhard, Toni. "Surprisingly Modern Wisdom from Ancient Greeks and Romans." Psychology Today, 26 June 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/turning-straw-gold/201406/surprisingly-modern-wisdom-ancient-greeks-and-romans. Accessed 12 June 2017.

"English Proverbs." Phrase Finder, www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.

Herzberg, Qin Xue, and Larry Herzberg. Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings: With Observations on Culture and Language. Stone Bridge Press, 2012.

Mieder, Wolfgang. Behold the Proverbs of a People: Proverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics. UP of Mississippi, 2014.

Mieder, Wolfgang. Proverbs Speak Louder than Words. Peter Lang, 2008.

Morgan, Lisa. "The Prominent and Prodigiously Popular Poor Richard." Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Summer 2008, pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/PoorRichardsAlmanack.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.

The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb. Edited by Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dundes. 1981. U of Wisconsin P, 1994.