Apothegm (a’-po-th-e-gem): One of several terms describing short, pithy sayings. Others include adage, gnome, maxim, paroemia, proverb, and sententia.
“If you can’t cut the mustard, put the baloney away.” Anon
This is one of my favorite sayings. It originated in Germany where mustard and baloney have deep cultural significance. Although “put the baloney away” can have a bawdy meaning for a German, it is usually read as social commentary on bragging, along the lines of the English saying “Put up or shut up.” Or, “Money talks, bullshit walks.”
Sayings, of course, have cultural roots. Like the Japanese: “Wake up and smell the sushi.” Or the French: “Don’t stack your Macaroons.” Or the English: “If the bloody tea’s hot, sip it.” Or Russia: “Don’t marry a nesting doll.” Or Iceland: “If it looks like Northern Lights, it is.” Or the Dutch: “You tolerate it, it tolerates you.”
In most cases, sayings are freighted with deep, metaphoric meaning. Let’s have a look at one of the most vexing and important sayings in Western thought: “A stitch in time saves nine.” At some point in history, the various nuances of “stitch” were more readily discerned. Probably, the primary referent for “stitch” when the saying was coined was sewing. In contemporary discourse, it can refer to the pain you get in your side from jogging, or it can mean being under the spell of humor, as “I was in stitches,”
So, we have established that “stitch” refers to sewing. But at this point we fall into a hermeneutic abyss with the introduction of “time.” What is a “stitch in time?” The answer may stretch from Einstein to “Back to the Future.” But we see by what follows—the stitch in time “saves nine [stitches]”. So, the “stitch in time” may refer to slowing sewing so you make fewer errors that you have to go back and redo—the “nine” saved from haste. Now we see the intertextuality of cultural truths: “Haste makes waste” is a Canadian version of “stitch in nine.” It can be recognized as the Canadian version because it has a polite, yet blunt, tenor.
So, as I.A. Richards, the mountain climbing philosopher of language said: “Say it don’t spray it!” Or Nietzsche: “In the valley of the used cars, low mileage is king.” Sayings are grist for our learning mill. Whenever we use a saying, we punctuate the moment with something that makes us look smarter than we will ever be.
We stand on the shoulders of NBA Centers..
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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