Definition and Examples of Adages in English

Definition and Examples of Adages in English An adage is an ancient saying or maxim, brief and sometimes mysterious, that has become accepted as conventional wisdom. In classical rhetoric, an adage is also known as a rhetorical proverb or  paroemia. An adage- such as The early bird gets the worm- is a condensed and memorable expression. Often its a type of metaphor.It is sometimes claimed that the  expression old adage  is redundant, say the editors of the American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style,inasmuch as a saying must have a certain tradition behind it to count as an adage in the first place. But the word adage  [from the Latin for I say] is first recorded in the phrase old adage, showing that this redundancy is itself very old. Pronunciation:  AD-ij Examples Know thyself.Alls well that ends well.Out of nothing, nothing can come.Art lies in concealing the art.From flowers, bees make honey and spiders poison.A stitch in time saves nine.Not quantity, but quality.Make haste slowly.Physician, heal thyself.Respect thyself, if thou wouldst be respected by others.The people reign, the elite rule.Knowledge equals power.Love conquers all.If you want peace, prepare for war.Who will guard the guards?What hurts us instructs us.Whom the gods destroy they first make mad.Give your child to a slave, and instead of one slave you will have two.A great city is a great solitude.Carpe diem. (Seize the day.)Be mindful of dying.Better late than never.The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Adages and Cultural Values [C]onsider the cultural values that adages, or common sayings, express. What is meant by the American saying, Every man for himself? Does it reflect the idea that men, and not women, are the standard? Does it reflect individualism as a value? What is meant by The early bird catches the worm?Distinct values are expressed in adages from other cultures. What values are expressed in the Mexican proverb, He who lives a hurried life will soon die? How is this view of time different from dominant views of time in the United States? In Africa, two popular adages are The child has no owner and It takes a whole village to raise a child, and in China a common saying is No need to know the person, only the family (Samovar Porter, 2000). A Japanese adage states that it is the nail that sticks out that gets hammered down (Gudykunst Lee, 2002). What values are expressed by these sayings? How are they different from mainstream Western values and the language that embodies them?(Julia T. Wood, Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters, 7th ed. Wadsworth, 2013) Tools of Persuasion As indirect tools of persuasion, adages are understandably attractive to people who judge direct confrontation and criticism inappropriate in many contexts.(Ann Fienup-Riordan, Wise Words of the Yupik People. University of Nebraska Press, 2005) Age as a Part of Adage Dictionaries (with a single exception) affirm in one way or another that an adage is a long-established saying; therefore the old [in the expression old adage] is redundant. Incidentally, an expression that someone thought up yesterday is not an adage. To put it another wayand this is obviousage is a part of adage. (Theodore M. Bernstein, The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage. Simon Schuster, 1965) Safire on Adages Those of us who enjoy living in synonymy know that an adage is not quite as graven in collective wisdom as a proverb or a maxim; it is not as legalistic as a dictum or as scientific as an axiom or as sentimental as a homily or as corny as a saw, nor as formalized as a motto, but it is more rooted in tradition than an observation. (William Safire, Spread the Word. Times Books, 1999) The Adagia (Adages) of Desiderius Erasmus (1500; rev. 1508 and 1536) Erasmus was an avid collector of proverbs and aphorisms. He compiled all the expressions he could find in the works of the classical Greek and Latin authors he loved, and provided a brief history and explication for each one. When I considered the important contributions made to elegance and richness of style by brilliant aphorisms, apt metaphors, proverbs, and similar figures of speech, I made up my mind to collect the largest possible supply of such things. he wrote. So in addition to Know thyself, readers of Erasmuss Adages are treated to pithy accounts of the origins of such expressions as to leave no stone unturned, to cry crocodile tears, no sooner said than done, clothes make the man, and everyone thinks his own fart smells sweet. Erasmus added to and revised the book throughout his life, and by the time he died in 1536 he had collected and explained 4,151 proverbs. Erasmus intended the book to be a Bartletts Familiar Quotations for 16th-century after-dinner speakers: a resource for writers and public orators who wanted to spice up their speeches with well-placed quotes from the classics. (James Geary, The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism. Bloomsbury USA, 2005) Many hands make light work.Put the cart before the horseWalk the tightropeCall a spade a spadeBetween friends all is common.To die laughingLike father, like sonThe project of the Adages, like many manuals published in the 16th century, was to harvest all possible vestiges of antiquity and put them at the disposal of scholars. In this particular case, Erasmus sought to collect and explain proverbs, aphorisms, ï ¬ gurative expressions, all sorts of more or less enigmatic sayings. . . . An adage is like a bud that contains the latent promise of a flower, an enigmatic expression, a mystery to unravel. The ancients veiled their messages, deposited clues to their culture in their language; they wrote in code. The modern reader breaks the code, opens the coffers, takes out the secrets and publishes them, even at the risk of altering their force. The author of Adages [Erasmus] acted as an intermediary, made a profession of displaying and multiplying. So it was normal that his book, both cornucopia and organ of distribution, would operate with centrifugal dynamics. (Michel Jeanneret, Perpetual Motion: Transforming Shapes in the Renaissance from Da Vinci to Montaigne, 1997. Translated by Nidra Poller. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) The Lighter Side of Adages: George Burns and Gracie Allen Special Agent Timothy McGee: I think its time you get back on that horse.Special Agent Ziva David: Youre getting a pony?Special Agent Timothy McGee: Its an adage.Special Agent Ziva David: I am not familiar with that breed.(Sean Murray and Cote de Pablo in Identity Crisis. NCIS, 2007)

Hares and Rabbits - Leporidae - The Animal Encyclopedia

Hares and Rabbits - Leporidae - The Animal Encyclopedia Hares and rabbits (Leporidae) together form a group of lagomorphs that includes about 50 species of hares, jackrabbits, cottontails and rabbits. Hares and rabbits have short bushy tails, long hind legs and long ears. In most of the ecosystems they occupy, hares and rabbits are the prey of numerous species of carnivores and predatory birds. Consequently, hares and rabbits are well-adapted for speed (necessary for outrunning their many predators). The long back legs of hares and rabbits enable them to launch into motion quickly and sustain the fast running speeds for considerable distances. Some species can run as fast as 48 miles per hour. The ears of hares and rabbits are generally quite large and well suited to efficiently capture and locate sounds. This enables them to take notice of potential threats at the first suspicious sound. In hot climates, large ears offers hares and rabbits an additional benefit. Due to their large surface area, the ears of hares and rabbits serve to disperse excess body heat. Indeed, hares that live in more tropical climates have larger ears than do those that live in colder climes (and thus have less need for heat dispersal). Hares and rabbits have eyes that are positioned on either side of their head such that their field of vision includes a complete 360 degree circle around their body. Their eyes are large, enabling them to take in ample light in the dim conditions present during the dawn, dark and dusk hours when they are active. The term hare is generally used to refer only to true hares (animals belonging to the genus Lepus). The term rabbit is used to refer to all remaining subgroups of the Leporidae. In broad terms, hares tend to be more specialized for rapid and sustained running while rabbits are more adapted for digging burrows and exhibit lower levels of running stamina. Hares and rabbits are  herbivores. They feed on a variety of plants including grasses, herbs, leaves, roots, bark and fruits. Since these food sources are difficult to digest, hares and rabbits must eat their feces so that food passes through their digestive tract twice and they can extract every last nutrient possible from their meals. This double digestive process is in fact so vital to hares and rabbits that if they are prevented from eating their feces, they will suffer malnutrition and die. Hares and rabbits have a nearly worldwide distribution that excludes only Antarctica, parts of South America, most islands, parts of Australia, Madagascar, and the West Indies. Humans have introduced hares and rabbits to many habitats they otherwise would not naturally inhabit. Hares and rabbits reproduce sexually. They exhibit high reproductive rates as a response to the high mortality rates they often suffer at the hands of predation, disease and harsh environmental conditions. Their gestation period averages between 30 and 40 days. Females give birth to between 1 and 9 young and in most species, they produce several litters per year. The young wean at about 1 month of age and reach sexual maturity quickly (in some species, for example, they are sexually mature at just 5 months of age). Size and Weight About 1 to 14 pounds and between 10 and 30 inches long. Classification Hares and rabbits are classified within the following taxonomic hierarchy: Animals Chordates Vertebrates Tetrapods Amniotes Mammals Lagomorphs Hares and Rabbits There are 11 groups of hares and rabbits. These include true hares, cottontail rabbits, red rock hares, and European rabbits as well as several other small groups. Evolution The earliest representative of hares and rabbits is thought to be Hsiuannania, a ground dwelling herbivore that lived during the Paleocene in China. Hsiuannania is know from just a few fragments of teeth and jaw bones but scientists are quite certain that the hares and rabbits originated somewhere in Asia.