PROVERB (Lat. proverbium, from pro, forth, publicly, verbum, word; the Greek equivalent is irapolia, from 7rapa, alongside, and oios, way, road, i.e. a wayside saying; Ger. Sprichwort)

This article appears in Volume V22, Page 506 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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PROVERB (Lat. proverbium, from pro, forth, publicly, verbum, word; the Greek equivalent is irapolia, from 7rapa, alongside, and oios, way, road, i.e. a wayside saying; Ger. Sprichwort) , a form of folk-literature, or its later imitation, expressing, in the form of a simple, homely sentence, a pungent criticism of life. Many definitions have been attempted of a " proverb," of which none has met with universal acceptance. J. Howell's (d. 1666) three essentials, " shortness, sense and salt," omit the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

characteristic, popularity or general acceptance, and the definition of ErasmusCelebre dictum scita quapiam novitate insignesuits a good proverb rather than

proverbs

PROVERBS, BOOK OF (Heb. Mishle Slzelomoh, " Proverbs of Solomon," abridged by the later Jews to Mishle; Septuagint, irapotpiai or II. EaX.; Lat. Vulg. Parabolae sal. and Liber proverbiorum)

in general. Lord Russell's " The wisdom of many and the wit of one " is familiar.
For a general survey of the subject of

proverbs

PROVERBS, BOOK OF (Heb. Mishle Slzelomoh, " Proverbs of Solomon," abridged by the later Jews to Mishle; Septuagint, irapotpiai or II. EaX.; Lat. Vulg. Parabolae sal. and Liber proverbiorum)

, Archbishop Trench's Proverbs and their Lessons (new ed., 1905, by A. Smythe-Palmer, with additions and notes) is useful; it contains a fairly comprehensive bibliography, ancient and modern.

Bohn

's Hand-book of Proverbs, and Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs (1857), based on
1 The viguerie was the jurisdiction of a viguier, i.e. "

vicar

VICAR (Lat. vicarius, substitute)

," a name given at various times and places in the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of France to very different feudal officials. The viguerie in the 17th and 18th centuries as an administrative subdivision in

Provence

PROVENCE (Provincia, Proenza)

corresponded to the prev8te elsewhere.the collections of John Ray (167o) and

David

Ferguson (1641), are very full. V. Stuckey Lean's Collectanea (5 vols.) 1902 is a storehouse of English proverbs, classified in various ways; Notes and Queries, 9th

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

(1898), vol. ii., contains a bibliography of English works. The principal foreign works are G. Strafforello, La Sapienza del mondo (3 vols., 1883) and Reinsberg and Dtiringsfeld, Die Sprichworter der germanisclzen and romanischen Sprachen (2 vols., 18721875). There are many popular handbooks giving full collections of proverbs, English and foreign.

End of Article: PROVERB (Lat. proverbium, from pro, forth, publicly, verbum, word; the Greek equivalent is irapolia, from 7rapa, alongside, and oios, way, road, i.e. a wayside saying; Ger. Sprichwort)

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