An adage (pronounced /ˈædɪdʒ/), or adagium (Latin), is a short but memorable saying that holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people, or that has gained some credibility through its long use. It often involves a planning failure such as "don't count your chickens before they hatch" or "don't burn bridges behind you." Adages may be interesting observations, practical or ethical Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue guidelines, or pessimistic Pessimism, from the Latin pessimus , is a state of mind which negatively colors the perception of life, especially with regard to future events. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?" comments on life.
Some adages are products of folk wisdom Folklore culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The academic and usually ethnographic which attempt to summarize some basic truth; these are generally known as proverbs A proverb, , is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim. If a proverb is distinguished by particularly good phrasing, it may be known. An adage which describes a general rule of conduct may be known as a "maxim". A pithy expression which has not necessarily gained credit through long use but which is distinguished by particular depth or good style is known as an aphorism The word aphorism denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form. The genre is also known as "maxim", while one distinguished by wit As in the wit of Parker's set, the Algonquin Round Table, witty remarks may be intentionally cruel , and perhaps more ingenious than funny or irony Irony is a situation, literary technique, or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity, discordance, or unintended connection with truth, that goes strikingly beyond the most simple and evident meaning of words or actions is known as an epigram An epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the Greek: ἐπίγραμμα "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia. Through overuse, an adage may become a cliché A cliché is a saying, expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. The term is frequently used in modern culture for an action or idea which is expected or or truism A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device, or be described as an "old saw." Adages coined in modernity are often given proper names and called "laws" in imitation of physical laws A physical law or scientific law is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior . Laws of nature are observable. Scientific laws are empirical, describing the observable laws. Empirical laws are typically conclusions based on repeated scientific experiments and simple observations, over many years, and which, or "principles". Some adages, such as Murphy's Law It is used as either a purely sarcastic musing that things always go wrong, or, less frequently, a reflection of the mathematical idea that, given a sufficiently long time, an event which is possible will almost surely take place. Although, in this case, emphasis is put on the possible bad occurrences, are first formulated informally and given proper names later, while others, such as the Peter Principle The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded&, have proper names in their initial formulation; it might be argued that the latter sort does not represent "true" adages, but the two types are often difficult to distinguish.
Adages formulated in popular works of fiction Fiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contrafactual events (events that are not true at the time of writing). In contrast to this is non-fiction, which deals exclusively in factual events (e.g.: biographies, histories). Semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of non-fiction, e.g. a fictional often find their way into popular culture Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, specifically Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th to 21st century. Heavily influenced by, especially when there exists a subculture In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. If a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture devoted to the work or its genre A genre (pronounced /ˈʒɑːnrə/, also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/; from French, genre /ʒɑ̃ʀ/, "kind" or "sort", from Latin: genus , Greek: genos, γένος) is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance, as is the case with science fiction Science fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature . Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a " novels. Many professions "A profession is a vocation founded upon specialised educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain" and subcultures create their own adages, which may be seen as a sort of jargon Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, or group. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he continued, "It seems that one ought to; such adages may find their way into popular usage, sometimes becoming altered in the process. Online communities A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. One of the most pervasive types of virtual community include social networking services, which consist of various online communities, such as those which develop in internet forums An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content or Usenet Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980. Users read and post public messages to one or more categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles bulletin board systems (BBS) in most respects, and is the precursor to the various Internet forums that are widely used today; newsgroups A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to, are known for generating their own adages.[1]
Example adages
Further information: List of adages named after people This list of eponymous laws provides links to articles on laws, adages, and other succinct observations or predictions named after a person. In some cases the person named has coined the law — such as Parkinson's law. In others, the work or publications of the individual have led to the law being so named — as is the case with Moore's law, Apophthegmata, and Proverb A proverb, , is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim. If a proverb is distinguished by particularly good phrasing, it may be known- Murphy's Law It is used as either a purely sarcastic musing that things always go wrong, or, less frequently, a reflection of the mathematical idea that, given a sufficiently long time, an event which is possible will almost surely take place. Although, in this case, emphasis is put on the possible bad occurrences: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
- TANSTAAFL "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch," is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. The phrase is central to Robert Heinlein's 1966 libertarian science fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which popularized it. The free-market economist Milton Friedman also popularized the: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
- Laws of infernal dynamics The laws of infernal dynamics are an adage about the cursedness of the universe. Attributed to Science fiction author David Gerrold, the laws are as follows::
- An object in motion will be moving in the wrong direction.
- An object at rest will be in the wrong place.
- The energy required to move an object in the correct direction, or put it in the right place, will be more than you wish to expend but not so much as to make the task impossible.
- If you want a job done well, then do it yourself.
References
- ^ Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. 1994. ISBN 0877791325.
External links
- The 2004 Edge Annual Question: What's Your Law?: A collection of the modern adages of various scientific personalities convened by John Brockman John Brockman is a literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He founded the Edge Foundation, an organization aimed to bring together people working at the edge of a broad range of scientific and technical fields's Edge online salon.
Categories: Adages Categories: Phrases | Traditions | Rules of thumb
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In her 1998 book, The New Feminism, Natasha Walter argued that the feminist adage the "personal is political" needed to ditch the "personal" and focus on ...
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