Loan proverbs

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Feb 7 21:13:27 UTC 2007


>Our recent ruminations about "Inter faeces et
>urinam nascimur" got me thinking about the
>(not-very-large?) category that I'll call LOAN
>PROVERBS--proverbs uttered in a foreign language
>within English discourse--as distinct from
>"calqued" proverbs or proverbs that simply have
>analogs in other tongues or pseudo-foreign
>constructions like "Nil illigitimi carborundum."
>And "true" proverbs--propositions consisting of
>entire sentences--not just phrases or idioms.
>
>Last night on TV Dr. House said "Veni, vidi, vici."

Hey, I noticed that too!  And he hadn't even conquered Gaul.

>Then there are "C'est la vie" and "Che sara sara." "Cogito ergo sum"?
>
>What others?
>
>--Charlie
>________________________________________________
How about the category of enthymematic loan proverbs, e.g. "Plus ça change..."?

LH

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