Fun fact: many of the sayings I grew up with are halves of themselves at best.
The ol’ chestnut, “Great minds think alike”, for instance, was originally followed with “but, rarely do they differ.”, and that’s a completely different message & tone.
“Blood is thicker than water” used to be “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”— the absolute opposite of the common usage these days.
“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”;
“The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”;
Idiom truncation is simply a part of diachronic morphism… though, when the cuckernutters’re running things, systemic stupid reigns. 🤷🏼♂️😶🤦🏼♂️
Fun fact: many of the sayings I grew up with are halves of themselves at best.
The ol’ chestnut, “Great minds think alike”, for instance, was originally followed with “but, rarely do they differ.”, and that’s a completely different message & tone.
“Blood is thicker than water” used to be “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”— the absolute opposite of the common usage these days.
“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”;
“The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”;
Idiom truncation is simply a part of diachronic morphism… though, when the cuckernutters’re running things, systemic stupid reigns. 🤷🏼♂️😶🤦🏼♂️
I personally like cutting them in half, and gluing disparate pieces together, like so:
“A few bad apples are right twice a day,” or “a trapped rat is worth two in the bush.”
The Boondock Saints’ve gotcha sorted, then.