Another new proverb

[Jonathan Lighter]

That's fascinating. It seems to relate in Spanish to the desirability of
matrimony.
One is the loneliest number.

Possibly coincidental, but the mystical notion that somehow "two is one and
one is none" seems to have occurred to various sorts of people.


JL


On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Another new proverb
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter
> > Former SEAL on CNN: "In the SEAL teams we say, 'Two is one; one is
> none.'"
>
> It is an old saying, That two is one; one, none ; and three, Roguery.
>
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=wSTuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22old+saying%22#search_anchor
>
> This saying may be unrelated to the SEAL motto, but it is entertaining.
>
> > In other words, if you have only one, expect it to fail. That's why two
> > helicopters went after Bin Laden. One failed.
> >
> > GB takes this back (probably) to 1994-95, almost unanimously in military
> > contexts, and, indeed, especially among SEALs.  I've encountered it
> before,
> > but only within the past four or five years.
> >
> > GB suggests that the phrase was originally part of a children's counting
> > rhyme. I guess they lived in a high-crime area.
> >
> > JL
>
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