never the twain shall meet

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the poem The Ballad of East and West.[1]

Phrase[edit]

never the twain shall meet

  1. (idiomatic) Used to emphasize that two subjects are so different that they cannot coexist or agree with each other.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Rudyard Kipling (1889) “The Ballad of East and West”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, published 1919: “Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, […]”
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