Loan proverbs

[Chris F Waigl]

Charles Doyle wrote:

> 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." Then there are "C'est la vie" and "Che sara sara." "Cogito ergo sum"?
>

Is "Che sera sera" really a loan? Maybe in the same sense as German
"Handy" (mobile phone) and a whole slew of French words -- which are
loaned from no particular foreign language though kind of look like
English. Free inventions on a theme.

Chris Waigl

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