antiproverb

See also: anti-proverb

English

Alternative forms

• anti-proverb

Etymology

Coined by paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder in 1982, anti- +‎ proverb.

Noun

antiproverb (plural antiproverbs)

1. A humorous adaptation of one or more existing proverbs.

   Hyponym: perverb

   Coordinate term: antijoke

   • 2015 April 16, David Shariatmadari, “Are these 11 proverbs for the digital age?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The system isn’t broken. It’s fixed.¶ Another species of anti-proverb, this one plays on the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” which seems to have emerged in the 1960s.

2. A proverb that contradicts another.
   • 1987, Howard Margolis, Patterns, Thinking, and Cognition: A Theory of Judgment, page 92:

     But for every proverb there is an antiproverb ("Too many cooks spoil the broth" vs. "Two heads are better than one," and so on).

Translations

a humorous adaptation of a proverb

• Finnish: väännös sananlaskusta
• French: antiparémie f
• German: Antisprichwort n
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: antiprovérbio m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• malaphor

Further reading

• anti-proverb on Wikipedia.Wikipedia