Proverb: Two wrongs will not make one right (antedating 1768)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:07 AM -0400 6/6/10, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>Two wrongs don't make a right.
>
>This proverb is in the Yale Book of Quotations with a date of 1814.
>The same 1814 citation is also given in the online Oxford Dictionary
>of Proverbs. The Oxford reference gives an additional 1783 cite for a
>variant of the proverb:
>
>1783 B. Rush Letter 2 Aug. (1951) I. 308 Three wrongs will not make one right.
>
>In modern times "three wrongs make a right" is sometimes used as a
>punch line. The related proverb "Two blacks don't make a white" is
>also mentioned.

And then there's the offensive joke with the punchline "Two Wongs
don't make a white".

>  I will present an antedating for that phrase in a
>separate message.
>
>...
>
>The 1734 cite below is included because it contains the phrase "two
>wrongs infer one right." This is not an instance of the maxim, but it
>suggests that the maxim may have been known in 1734.

It's also a nice illustration of the use of "infer" (with impersonal
subjects) for "imply", which was standard at that time (and before
and since), even though parallel uses of "infer" with personal
subjects didn't begin appearing until the late 19th c. (all this
courtesy of the excellent MWDEU entry on "imply", "infer", which
provides quotes parallel to this one from Shakespeare, Milton,
Austen, and Hardy).

>The poem
>containing the phrase may be playfully invoking the conventional
>maxim, or there may be no relationship.
>
>Cite: 1734 November, The London Magazine: or Gentleman's Monthly
>Intelligencer, "The Moral, in Hudibrastic; by the Translator", Page
>600, Column 2, Poetical Essays, Printed for J. Wilford, London.
>(Google Books full view)
>
>The lightning said, its he; in spight
>Of fate, two wrongs infer one right.
>Let fly; well shot! thanks to my spark;
>A blind boy, once, has cleft the mark.
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=FEQDAAAAMAAJ&q=%22two+wrongs%22#v=snippet&
>
>Garson O'Toole
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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