meaning and origin of the proverb ‘quot homines tot sententiæ’
from Phormio, by the Roman dramatist Terence—appeared in English in the 1539 translation of Erasmus’s adages
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meaning and origin of ‘let the cobbler stick to his last’
‘Let the cobbler stick to his last’ goes back to Pliny’s story of the Greek artist Apelles answering a cobbler who had criticised one of his paintings.
Read Moreorigin of ‘one swallow does not make a summer’
MEANING a single fortunate event doesn’t mean that what follows will also be good ORIGIN The annual migration of swallows to Europe from southern climes at the end of winter was the subject of a proverb in Ancient Greece: μία χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ, in which ἔαρ means spring; it is found […]
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