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What is "adage"

Crossword clues for adage

adage
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
adage
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
old
▪ A crisis in the family makes you realise the old adage that life is not a dress rehearsal.
▪ Until recently, I pictured him as some one whose life confirmed the old adage about the good dying young.
▪ Does the student follow the old adage that to read and paraphrase one book is plagiarism but to use two is research?
▪ Perhaps the future lies in the compromise of adopting the old management accounting adage: different costs for different purposes.
▪ Yet, as the old adage goes: Easier said than done.
▪ The oldest and truest adage of the recording world is that newer is not necessarily better.
▪ The old adage is the show must go on.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had a sort of dry, if unadventurous, humour in him, as suggested by that dreadful Bell's adage.
▪ However, the old adage that leaders don't lose elections should be seriously questioned.
▪ Nowhere is the showbiz adage more true than here.
▪ The idea of television against reductionism recalls the adage about fighting for peace, and the equivalent activity for virginity.
▪ The old adage is the show must go on.
▪ The old adage that those who try hardest succeed furthest should be made to apply.
▪ Yet, as the old adage goes: Easier said than done.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Adage

Adage \Ad"age\, n. [F. adage, fr. L. adagium; ad + the root of L. aio I say.] An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb.

Letting ``I dare not'' wait upon ``I would,'' Like the poor cat i' the adage.
--Shak.

Syn: Axiom; maxim; aphorism; proverb; saying; saw; apothegm. See Axiom.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
adage

"brief, familiar proverb," 1540s, Middle French adage, from Latin adagium "adage, proverb," apparently from adagio, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + *agi-, root of aio "I say," from PIE *ag- "to speak." But Tucker thinks the second element is rather ago "set in motion, drive, urge."

Wiktionary
adage

n. 1 An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use 2 An old saying, which has been overused or considered a cliché; a trite maxim

WordNet
adage

n. a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people [syn: proverb, saw, byword]

Wikipedia
Adage

An adage (; Latin: adagium) is a short, usually philosophical, but memorable saying which holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people, or that has gained some credibility through its long memetic use.

It often involves a planning failure such as "don't count your chickens before they hatch" or "don't burn your bridges". Adages may be interesting observations, practical or ethical guidelines, or skeptical comments on life.

Some adages are products of folk wisdom that attempt to summarize some form of basic truth; these are generally known as proverbs or bywords. An adage that describes a general rule of conduct is a " maxim". A pithy expression that has not necessarily gained credit through long use, but is distinguished by particular depth or good style is an aphorism, while one distinguished by wit or irony is an epigram.

Through overuse, an adage may become a cliché or truism, or be described as an "old saw." Adages coined in modernity are often given proper names and called "laws" in imitation of physical laws, or "principles". Some adages, such as Murphy's Law, are first formulated informally and given proper names later, while others, such as the Peter Principle, have proper names in their initial formulation; it might be argued that the latter sort does not represent "true" adages, but the two types are often difficult to distinguish.

Adages which were collected and used by ancient writers in their work and writings inspired the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus to produce a massive collection of Adagia in the early sixteenth century. There have been many such collections since, usually in vernacular languages.

Adages formulated in popular works of fiction often find their way into popular culture, especially when there exists a subculture devoted to the work or its genre, as is the case with science fiction novels. Many professions and subcultures create their own adages, which may be seen as a sort of jargon; such adages may find their way into popular usage, sometimes becoming altered in the process. Online communities, such as those that develop in Internet forums or Usenet newsgroups, are known for generating their own adages.

Usage examples of "adage".

There was a legal adage that hard cases made for bad law, but the books could not anticipate all the things that people did.

This epidemic of rustic rabbis, with their simplistic philosophy and folksy adages, gives the Jewish religious establishment and the Roman occupiers a rare opportunity for cooperation, for the priests resent the devotion and enthusiasm that the uneducated Wad lavishes on these fanatics, and the Romans see them as foci for social unrest in a population already dangerously unstable.

Even so doth the tollman at the well-frequented turn-pike on the Wellbraehead, sitting at his ease in his own dwelling, gather more receipt of custom, than if, moving forth upon the road, he were to require a contribution from each person whom he chanced to meet in his journey, when, according to the vulgar adage, he might possibly be greeted with more kicks than halfpence.

And Cap Cicero, famous alpinist and guide, was an inflexible bully who lived by the adage My way or no way.

An old adage crossed his mind: a swarm of bees in May is worth a ton of hay.

It is a well-known Holmesian adage that, once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, no matter how unlikely it might appear, must be the truth.

Remember the adage: We want products that never come back and customers that always come back!

More than one lusty warrior-in-training was knocked atumbling by the boy, and the bigger they were, to paraphrase the shaggy adage, the farther they tumbled.

I had rather be cared for in a fever by the best-taught among you than by the renowned Fernelius or the illustrious Boerhaave, could they come back to us from that better world where there are no physicians needed, and, if the old adage can be trusted, not many within call.

Charley verified the adage about little pitchers, I am sure, for she heard of more sayings and doings in a day than would have come to my ears in a month.

It was terrible to be thus haunted by a voice: to have advice, commands, remonstrance, all sorts of saws and adages still poured upon him, and no visible wife.

He has bought two specimens of poultry, which, if there be any truth in adages, were certainly not caught with chaff, to be prepared for the spit.

Likewise, an old adage or proverb may be used to prove a point, but many adages are probably not true, e.

Foremost among them was the most basic of adages related to the art of war: The best defense is always a good offense.

All the Basque of Haute Soule believe they have special genetic gifts for meteorological prognostication based upon their mountain heritage and the many folk adages devoted to reading weather signs.