There are many things I love about the English language, including the fact that we have so many words that describe or represent the same things, but with slightly different meanings or nuances.
On the other hand, it's possible to have too much of a good thing. In a crisis, for example, I would be hard-pushed to articulate the differences between an adage (a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation), an aphorism (a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation), an apophthegm (a short, pithy, instructive saying; a terse remark or aphorism), and a proverb (a simple, concrete, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience).
For example, do you remember my introducing my dear old granddad in The Times They Are a-Changin’ (Part 2)? As I mentioned in that column, if the Guinness Book of Records had been around at that time, my granddad would have been a contender for the “Man who was on the most ships sunk in WWII” record.
Granddad was brought up in extreme poverty. There wasn't much food around, so he grew up malnourished. I remember him as a kindly, upbeat man who -- although slight of build -- was wiry and composed mainly of muscle and sinew.
One of granddad's favorite sayings was, "We're short of nothing we've got," which he used when we had to make do with something we actually did have, even if it wasn't ideally suited to the purpose.
I just talked with my mom on the phone. She tells me that my granddad (her dad) also used this saying to make the point that, although you might be short of (without) some things, whatever you have got you're not short of, so consider yourself lucky to at least have something.
Did you know that the first adhesive tape -- Scotch tape -- was invented in 1930 by banjo-playing 3M engineer Richard Drew? Well, all I know is that it hadn’t reached us when I was a kid. I remember parcels coming through the post wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
I also remember that, no matter how excited I was to see what was inside the parcel, there was no way on Earth than granddad was going to cut that piece of string with the razor-sharp knife he always kept about his person. It didn’t matter how tight the knots were tied, granddad would happily sit there working away at the little scamps until -- possibly hours later -- they realized that resistance was futile and succumbed to his will.
In my mind's eye, I can hear the satisfaction in grandad's voice after he'd finally unraveled the knot, removed the string from the package, wound it into small clew (using the end to tie a nautical knot that would restrain the ball from unravelling but release it with a tug), and dropped it into a drawer crammed with similar clews exclaiming, "We're short of nothing we've got!"
But now I'm left wondering if this counts as an adage, an aphorism, an apophthegm, or a proverb. This is going to keep me awake at nights. Can you shed any light on the subject? Also, do you have any similar sayings you heard as a kid that you'd care to share?
I would classify this as an asphorism.
But that wasn’t one of the options LOL Unless you meant “aphorism” — and I can’t even spell aphorism 🙂
Slightly off topic, but since you brought up Richard Drew, the inventor of Scotch tape, the origin of the name “Scotch” tape (from Wikipedia):
“The use of the term Scotch in the name was a pejorative meaning “stingy” in the 1920s and 1930s. The brand name Scotch came about around 1925 while Richard Drew was testing his first masking tape to determine how much adhesive he needed to add. The bodyshop painter became frustrated with the sample masking tape and exclaimed, “Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!” The name was soon applied to the entire line of 3M tapes.”
…And the really strange tidbit (also from Wikipedia):
“In 1953, Soviet scientists showed that triboluminescence caused by peeling a roll of an unidentified Scotch brand tape in a vacuum can produce X-rays. In 2008, American scientists performed an experiment that showed the rays can be strong enough to leave an X-ray image of a finger on photographic paper.”
I think it’s just a matter of time before we will be required to wear radiation suits in order to work with Scotch Tape.
Thanks Rick — I had hear some of this before, but I’d forgotten all about it — I LOVE learning these tidbits of trivia and nuggets of knowledge 🙂
It’s an aphorism since an apophthegm is subsumed in an aphorism, an adage is something more common than this saying and a proverb is much more widely known, surely!
Anyway, I landed here following a search for this: we are short of nothing we haven’t got. That was one of my mother’s most common exclamations. As a child I didn’t understand it but now it springs to mind randomly so I thought I would try to find its source. My mother was born in 1924 and died relatively young at 57.
Anyway, I didn’t find its source but I respect your grandfather’s version. Ergo, I award them the joint sources of the saying.
Hi Duncan — thanks for responding — I bow to your superior understanding of this linguistic morass. I’ve not heard your mother’s version before — I’ll ask my mum when I FaceTime with her tomorrow.
Just happened on this by chance – rather too late to be of current interest probably. My late father used to say this phrase “We’re short of nothing we’ve got” all the time to us kids and to his grandkids too. He was born in 1918 in the Furness district of Lancashire, so a North country saying, I suppose. Times were hard for his family as he was growing up, and I took the meaning of it to be, We should be grateful and happy with what we do have. He had lots of such sayings, another one being, “That’s before you brought your shovel”, which was a little more difficult to get a clear meaning of. He said it to us when a happy situation or achievement. And, “I see you’re up before your breakfast” as a child appeared downstairs first thing. Many more sayings from him too. But one from my maternal grandmother(born 1888) in Gloucestershire, said with annoyance at us kids,with a strong Glos. burr: Stop “faffing about like a fart in a bottle!” Another from her that my mother remembered if she asked her mother what was for dinner:”Cat’s arse n cabbage!” A rather impatient retort as she disliked being pestered when up to her eyes trying to cook the meal for the family.
Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth. I remember people saying (mostly to me) “stop faffing about,” but not the rest of it. When I hear these old expressions, it really takes me back 🙂
My mother, born in 1906, and who lived all her life in Leicester, often used the expression “We’re short of nothing we’ve got” – so in wider useage than just the north country.