Everyday Misquotations
4–24–17
Alright team, I’m quite late on this one, so it’ll be a short one and I will make it up with a good long one tomorrow. For this fact, I was inspired by @@@Bunny’s Ecclesiastes quote comment the other night.
I did some sleuthing and came across more pseudo-etymology surrounding famous quotes and proverbs that we often misuse in everyday life.
“Blood is thicker than water”
This phrase is generally used to justify choosing family over friends or other relationships.
Oddly, the original quote seems to imply the opposite. There is some online debate, but the full quote seems to be “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” where the blood of the covenant is the bonds and relationships we have made with others (blood brothers, like a wolfpack, jafeel?) and the water of the womb relates to familial bonds. So really, we should be using this quote as justification for “Saturdays are for the boys” above all else.
“Great minds think alike”
*~wavelengths~* Mehul Mehta
Evidently we got okey-doked on this one, because the full phrase is “great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ.” This is more of an action-reaction phrase than a single proverb-style quote. I would liken it to our earlier “said the actress to the bishop.” In this case, when two people think the same thing, one of them could say “great minds think alike,” implying they’re smart for coming to the same conclusion. The third witty friend would then interject “though fools seldom differ,” implying their stupid groupthink attitude arrives at the same conclusion.
“Curiosity killed the cat”
Often we use this phrase when people are being nosy and asking too many questions. This proverb has actually evolved over time. It began as “Care killed the cat,” where “care” meant worry or sorrow, as cats were often seen as anxious creatures. Eventually this morphed into the commonly recognized “curiosity killed the cat,” and even further expanded to “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.” This longer version actually implies an opposite meaning to the common use. The longer interpretation agrees that inquisitiveness can get you into trouble, but the satisfaction of finding the answers to your questions is fulfilling enough to warrant the risk. It is probably a reference to a cat’s multiple lives.
Alright now let’s get into some quotes whose meaning we know, but with a somewhat unclear etymology (mmmmmm etymology):
“butter [someone] up”
I love schmoozing as much as the next helplessly insecure med student, so this is one of my favorites. One way to interpret this saying is that you are laying flattery on a person thick, like spreading butter onto bread. The more accepted history, however, is that the phrase is based on the ancient indian tradition of literally throwing balls of ghee (clarified butter) at the statues of the gods to seek favor. Furthermore, there’s a tibetan tradition of making butter sculptures to celebrate the new year, with the hope that those buttery offerings would bring peace and happiness for the full lunar year.
“Turn a blind eye”
The phrase is used when deliberately ignoring someone breaking a rule.
There is actually a dope story behind this one. The 1800s were a time of failed diplomacy, and a time where the British tried to overcompensate with a large navy. Mostly, they were salty that they weren’t a part of the League of Armed Neutrality, which included Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia, among others. Concerned with recent actions by the League, the brits decided to assemble their navy and prepare for a war.
The important battle for our purposes was the Battle of Copenhagen, where we saw British ships going up against Danish and Norwegian ships. Vice Admiral Nelson was captain of the British HMS Elephant, he was also blind in one eye. The British were losing badly as the battle progressed, with multiple ships damaged. Nelson’s superior, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, began signaling for him to withdraw by raising a series of flags as a signal. Nelson had other plans, however, and he believed they could win if they just kept pushing forward.
Nelson raised the telescope to his blind eye and proclaimed: “I have only one eye, and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal!”
This dude legitimately put up a telescope to his blind eye and blatantly ignored his superior’s commands. Doesn’t matter though, the Brits ended up winning because of Nelson’s stubbornness.
Sources:
https://mystudentvoices.com/4-quotes-that-you-have-been-terribly-misquoting-6b2233d3212d
