adage

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæ.dɪd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

adage (plural adages)

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

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

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, 9 e)

Translations

old saying

• Afrikaans: wysheid
• Bulgarian: пословица (bg) (poslovica), поговорка (bg) (pogovorka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 俗语 (zh) (súyǔ)

• 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
• 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)

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.