Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Heard Of Anti-Proverbs...?

I'll bet that you have not only heard of them, but at some point you have probably used them!

Although they sound kinda funny, some of them make sense in a twisted way. Let's see what they are and you'll know what I mean.

Anti-proverb

Anti-proverbs—also called perverbs—are permutations of common proverbs, often towards a humorous end. There are dozens of ways of altering proverbs, and the general gist of an anti-proverb is taking a known saying and twisting it around.

It’s been suggested that the original meaning of the term perverb was to describe two proverbs that had been spliced together like a sort of whole-sentence portmanteau. Take the perverb “every dog has a silver lining,” a combination of “every dog has its day” and “every cloud has a silver lining.” As with the further examples below, you can see that the two hybridized proverbs are not random; rather, they follow a certain format that both have in common:

“A fool and his money is a friend indeed.”

“The road to hell is the spice of life.”

“Don’t count your chickens in midstream.”

Anti-proverbs can take other forms beyond this type of splicing, as in “a penny saved is a penny taxed” and “slaughter is the best medicine.”

See what I mean? If you haven't used one or two, I'll bet you have laughed when someone else did!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. High temps already!

7 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

HMMM,...some of THEM seem as true as the originals!

linda m said...

They did make me laugh. Coffee on the patio sounds great. The early rain has ended; the sun is out; and the temps is 63. Can't complain.

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
They really are. aren't they?
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Linda...
Yep, they will bring a grin sometimes.
Thanks for coming over today!

JO said...

I think I only have heard one of them.

Patio time is nice before the heat drives us in doors again.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Those are good, Jim. Yep, you put smile on my face.

Sixbears said...

Neat! I did not know there was a special name for those things. Live and learn.

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
That was mainly an example. You can make up your very own if you want to try it! Bet you could come up with some good ones.
Thanks for dropping by today !


Hey Dizzy...
Glad you liked them, my friend. Bet we could make up some, ya think ?
I thank you for the visit today !


Hey Sixbears...
The English language is chock full of surprises at times !
Thanks for coming over today !