three time's a charm

[Fred Shapiro]

yOn Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Sam Clements wrote:

> I found a few US cites from 1932 using the wording "Three time's THE charm."
>
> Most of my phrase books(Ammer, etc.) are silent.

James Kelly, _A Complete Collection of Scotish Proverbs_ (1721), has "The
third is a charm. ... Spoken to encourage those who have attempted a thing
once and again to try a third time."

Fred Shapiro


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