"A woman without a man" proverb

[Joanne M. Despres]

On 27 Apr 2003, at 17:50, Mary Jane wrote:

 A fish without a
> bicycle (coined by Gloria Steinem?) is, alas, as it should be. A fish has no
> use for a bicycle, just as a garden has no use for grass, but the difference
> is that you will never see a fish on a bicycle...a garden with grass is
> another matter.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 5:37 PM
> Subject: "A woman without a man" proverb
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> > Subject:      "A woman without a man" proverb
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > I found the following antecedent of a well-known modern proverb on another
> > mailing list:
> >
> > <begin quote>
> > Jan[us] Gruter[us] seems to have been an interesting character: a
> librarian
> > & philologist, he lived in exile in [Elizabethan ]England for a while
> before
> > ending up in
> > Heidelberg, and produced (amongst many other things) a 3-volume
> florilegium
> > (in his case, a collection of proverbs and sayings from various European
> > countries).
> >
> > One typical English proverb he quotes: "a woman without a man is like a
> > garden without grass". Now, of course, we're more likely to find this as
> > "...is like a fish without a bicycle". You choose! :-)
> >
> >
> > Auteur: Gruterus , Janus
> > Titel:  Florilegium ethico-politicum nunquam antehac editum; necnon P.
> Syri
> > ac L. Senecae sententiae aureae; accedunt Gnomae paroemiaeque Graecorum,
> item
> > Proverbia Germanica, Belgica, Italica, Gallica, Hispanica
> > Uitgave: Francofurti : Jonas Rhodius
> > Jaar: 1610
> > <end quote>
> >
> >               - Jim Landau
> >