adage

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.

Pronunciation

• (UK, Canada, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/, [ˈɛəd.ɪd͡ʒ]

Noun

adage (plural adages)

1. An old saying which has obtained credit by long use.

   Synonyms: proverb, colloquialism, apophthegm; see also Thesaurus:saying

   • 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:

     He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."

2. An old saying which has been overused or considered a cliché; a trite maxim.

   Synonym: old saw

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vii], page 135:

     Like the poore Cat i’ th’ Addage.

Derived terms

• adagial

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁eǵ- (0 c, 10 e)

Translations

old saying

• Afrikaans: wysheid
• Albanian: e thënë , thanun (sq)
• Bulgarian: пословица (bg) (poslovica), поговорка (bg) (pogovorka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 俗语 (zh) (súyǔ)

• Czech: přísloví (cs) n, rčení (cs) n, pořekadlo (cs) n
• Dutch: gezegde (nl), zegswijze (nl) m or f, spreekwoord (nl) n
• Finnish: sanonta (fi)
• Georgian: გამონათქვამი (gamonatkvami)
• German: Sprichwort (de) n, geflügeltes Wort (de) n
• Greek: παροιμία (el) f (paroimía), γνωμικό (el) n (gnomikó)
• Hungarian: szállóige (hu), velős mondás, bölcs mondás, közmondás (hu)
• Italian: modo di dire (it) m
• Latin: adagium n
• Macedonian: пословица f (poslovica)
• Norwegian: visdomsord n
• Persian: پند (fa) (pand)
• Polish: maksyma (pl) f, przysłowie (pl) n, porzekadło (pl) n
• Portuguese: adágio (pt) m, dito (pt) m, anexim (pt) m
• Romanian: zicală (ro) f
• Russian: посло́вица (ru) f (poslóvica)
• Serbo-Croatian: poslovica (sh), izreka (sh)
• Spanish: adagio (es) m, refrán (es) m, dicho (es) m
• Swedish: talesätt (sv) n, ordspråk (sv) n
• Tagalog: sabihin (tl)
• Thai: ภาษิต (th) (paa-sìt)

Further reading

• adage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Gadea

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin adagium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.daʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

adage m (plural adages)

1. adage

Further reading

• “adage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.