I got into four-word proverbs (Yojijukugos), like the one described here, when I was brainstorming some names for a new collection of quad-CPU workstations. Fifteen years ago, such beasts were new to us.
A friend and co-worker gave me a book that was a collection of Yojijukugos for English speakers. I will try to dig it up, it’s in storage at the moment.
But it got me thinking of traditional English-language Yojijukugos, some of which are mentioned in the great comments here. They probably go back thousands of years to Classical (5th Century BCE) Greek Aesop. Who probably didn’t speak 21st Century English.
.
- “[killing] Two birds, [with] one stone”
- “[A] stitch [in] time saves nine” — Literally, refers to losing count when stitching a crochet pattern: if you drop a stitch, you have to unwind back to the place before the error, because the yarn has no backspace key. But of course it’s a reminder that doing things at the right time can save a lot of work later.
- “[a] Bad week [for] quitting glue” - Lamenting the wisdom of kicking a dangerous habit of inhaling toxic substances, just when things are getting very strange and stressful. First appeared in the 5th Century BCE feature film “Airplane”, but refers to this past week’s collapse of banks SVB and Signature Bank. (This guy Aesop really knew how to look ahead.)
- “Same stuff, different day” - we’ve all seen this before.
A friend and co-worker gave me a book that was a collection of Yojijukugos for English speakers. I will try to dig it up, it’s in storage at the moment.
But it got me thinking of traditional English-language Yojijukugos, some of which are mentioned in the great comments here. They probably go back thousands of years to Classical (5th Century BCE) Greek Aesop. Who probably didn’t speak 21st Century English.
.
- “[killing] Two birds, [with] one stone”
- “[A] stitch [in] time saves nine” — Literally, refers to losing count when stitching a crochet pattern: if you drop a stitch, you have to unwind back to the place before the error, because the yarn has no backspace key. But of course it’s a reminder that doing things at the right time can save a lot of work later.
- “[a] Bad week [for] quitting glue” - Lamenting the wisdom of kicking a dangerous habit of inhaling toxic substances, just when things are getting very strange and stressful. First appeared in the 5th Century BCE feature film “Airplane”, but refers to this past week’s collapse of banks SVB and Signature Bank. (This guy Aesop really knew how to look ahead.)
- “Same stuff, different day” - we’ve all seen this before.