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Comment on What's a word that means a common saying which is arguably untrue?
Bonehead@kbin.social 6 months ago
"Blood is thicker than water."
Usually said to convince someone that you should be there to help family regardless of what that family did to you. Unfortunately the full saying is "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb", meaning the ties you form with friends can be stronger than the family you you born into.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 6 months ago
twice_twotimes@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
One of the biggest cliche revisionist histories I know of is “Jack of all trades, master of none; often much better than master of one.” It’s an interesting one because it’s been retconned twice.
You’ll hear people respond to first line by saying “um actually the second line of the poem totally changes the meaning.” Yes, it did change the meaning when it was added in the 21st century, 400-500 years later.
Then you’ll hear people one step closer to accuracy who correct “Jack of all trades” by reminding the speaker that it’s not a compliment because it ends with “master of none.” Except the master of none bit wasn’t used until the 18th century, and the second revision with the couplet may actually closer in meaning to the original!
The original, simple phrase “jack of all trades” was first used in that form in the 16th century, possibly as a reference to Shakespeare, and definitely as a phrase that was intentionally ambiguous about whether it should be interpreted as a compliment or insult.
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Most of those old sayings have had the rejoinder omitted, and thereby completely losing their original meaning, in fact. For example, “Great minds think alike” originally closed with “but rarely do they differ”, etc.
zipkag@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This is probably not true. The concept of this phrase but referring to family is probably a modern confusion. There is no clear evidence it means it was really referencing ties to friends. Although I wish it did. Here’s some further reading from others also looking for a clearer reference.
…stackexchange.com/…/is-the-alleged-original-mean…