Talk:time flies when you're having fun

RFD discussion: May 2021[edit]

The following information passed a request for deletion (permalink).

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.

~~time flies when you're having fun~~

Are proverbs subject to SOP? Also, is the phrase "time flies" a backformation from the expression? I could see a circumstance where an idiomatic proverb becomes shortened, and the original proverb appears to be SOP relative to the shortened form of the proverb. For example, people may refer to something as a "watched pot" in reference to the phrase, a watched pot never boils. If "watched pot" becomes an expression in its own right, would that make a watched pot never boils retroactively SOP? bd2412 T 23:02, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget there's also the expression time flies like an arrow. And, of course, fruit flies like a banana. :D ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 00:38, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It may be asking the impossible: no one ever seems to have a stopwatch handy on such occasions... Chuck Entz (talk) 04:22, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@BD2412, I don't really think the expression is proverbial. Also, if the etymology on time flies is correct, "time flies" is calqued from Virgil and is not a backformation.--Tibidibi (talk) 07:45, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Tibidibi: It's really not up to us as editors to decide whether this phrase is proverbial. That decision has already been made for us by sources identifying the phrase as a proverb. bd2412 T 20:59, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Fun fact, the "watched pot" phenomenon has a name: metalepsis. Colin M (talk) 12:41, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

blatantly keep Yellow is the colour (talk) 07:23, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Weak keep, yes, it is SOP, but this has a better to claim to being a proverb that some of the other stuff that collects dust in that category. It is considered a proverb by several commentators, not just random schmucks uncritically compiling lists of proverbs. The oldest cite I found on BGC is from 1940 and this dates it to 1939. Perhaps not terribly convincing, but we'll have to start accepting things as proverbs at some point. ~~←₰-→~~ Lingo ^Bingo _Dingo (talk) 17:14, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Definite keep, SOP is irrelevant. DAVilla 19:32, 7 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]