Loan proverbs

[Charles Doyle]

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"?

What others?

--Charlie
________________________________________________

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org