| 词组 | old adage |
| 释义 | old adage We find the expression old adage called a tautology by Vizetelly 1922 because an adage is an old saying. He repeats his animadversion for the Lincoln Library in 1924. Theodore Bernstein calls old adage redundant in Winners & Sinners in 1962; he says the same thing in 1965; Copperud 1964, 1970, 1980 holds the same view; Harper 1975 calls it redundant and repeats the charge in 1985; Bremner 1980, Bryson 1984, and Kilpatrick 1984 come to the same conclusion. All of these commentators base their opinions on the fact that adage is defined in dictionaries as "an old saying." Whence this definition? Johnson 1755 defines adage as "a maxim handed down from antiquity." Noah Webster's 1828 definition, "an old saying, which has obtained credit by long use," continued in Merriam-Webster dictionaries until 1934. Editors of Webster's Second noted a change in the way the word was being used, however, a change exemplified by this citation from the Yale Review (October 1917): • It is an adage that the tired business man abets his wife in all.... So the editors of Webster's Second snicked old out of the definition. At the time Webster's Third was edited, the definition was completely revised. It had become evident that an adage, while embodying some common observation, need not come down from antiquity: • Some people forget the lovely adage that people who live in glass houses should undress in the dark — Publishers Weekly, 12 Aug. 1950 • ... what is meant by the adage, "an imperfect democracy is better than a perfect autocracy" — Lucius Garvin, A Modern Introduction to Ethics, 1953 • "A stock well bought is already half way to a profit", could be an adage exemplifying the wisdom of proper timing —pamphlet issued by Stock Trend Service, Inc., 1954 • The adage that the rise of civilization is the result of a series of intellectual minorities pitting themselves against the barbaric masses is open to question — Richard L. Russell, N.Y. Times Mag., 23 Jan. 1955 It is also worth our notice that old has gone with adage since the word first came into English: • He forgat the olde adage, saynge in tyme of peace provyde for warre —Edward Hall, Chronicle (The Union of Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lan-castre and York), 1548 (OED) • 'Much company, much knavery'—as true as that old adage 'Much courtesy, much subtlety.' —Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller, 1594 So it is not surprising that old has continued to accompany adage both from force of habit and, in more recent use, to impute age to the adage, which may not be very old at all: • ... racegoers remembered the old adage, "Second in the Trial, first in the Derby." After all, they'd seen it come true five times in sixteen years, which is quite enough to establish an adage —Audax Minor, New Yorker, 8 May 1954 Or the old may merely be factual: • No saying was ever more true than the old adage that without his tools the workman is helpless —Thomas F. McNally, Bulletin ofthe National Catholic Education Association, August 1949 • Contrary to the old adage, practice won't make you perfect —Willie Mosconi, Winning Pocket Billiards, 1965 • ... the old adage holds—what fools we mortals be —Irving Wallace, The Plot, 1967 • ... the old adage "misery loves company" —Natalie Babbitt, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 24 June 1979 Old adage is as old as adage itself in English. Usage writers who object to it on grounds of redundancy have not taken note of a change of meaning. Go ahead and use it where it seems apt to you. |
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