Talk:black ox trod upon my foot
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The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification.
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
google books:"black ox trod upon my foot" find two important things:
- seems to be copied verbatim from the book listed under references
- that seems to be the only attestation on Google Books. No actual usage.
2.30.98.209 13:20, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
- Seems to be a figurative expression used only in that context. For something to be a proverb, it needs to see regular usage outside the context of the book. Delete. Jamesjiao → T ◊ C 22:01, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
- If you allow in your search terms for minor variations, it's not as rare as it first seems: Google Books: "black ox" trod "foot". At any rate, it seems to be mostly Elizabethan, or thereabouts, with some dialectal usage since. Chuck Entz (talk) 02:14, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
- If you check out the first hit in the search Chuck Entz provided, Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hardin Craig (1941) has "The proverb "The Black Ox has not Trod on His Foot" in Renaissance Literature by Archer Taylor that gives a plethora of cites for various forms, defining it as "1. He has not known trouble in the married state", "2. He is inexperienced, he has not known sorrow or care", "3. She has not suffered the ravages of age", and "4. He has not known want.", backed up with at least 20 citations. I think it's a pretty clear keep in some form.--Prosfilaes (talk) 20:19, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
- Webster 1913 includes it as "have the black ox tread on one's foot"; there is a Leigh Hunt citation, though the text is not given. Equinox ◑ 19:09, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
- Moved to the black ox tread on one's foot which is trivially citable. Further improvements or moves are welcome. — Ungoliant (falai) 03:46, 11 July 2014 (UTC)