saying

[Charles Doyle]

Yes, my (Georgia) folklore students not infrequently will report that superstition--suggested by a discussion of old standbys like the taboo against returning an dish empty in which a gift of food was presented--though I have no knowledge (or intuitions) about the age or geographical distribution of the belief.  (I would term it a folk belief or superstition rather than a saying.)

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:34:20 -0700
>From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>
>a friend asked me yesterday if i'd heard the following saying:
>
>   If I thank you for a living plant, it will die.
>
>i hadn't, but i said i'd ask ADS-L about it.  anyone familiar with it?
>
>arnold

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