Jump to content

Teach fish how to swim

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Teach fish how to swim is an idiomatic expression derived from the Latin proverb piscem natare doces. The phrase describes the self-sufficiency of those who know better how to do everything than the experts. It corresponds to the expression, "teaching grandmother to suck eggs".[1] Erasmus attributed the origins of the phrase in his Adagia to Diogenianus.[2]

A corollary idiomatic phrase is part of common usage in Chinese "班門弄斧"[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Belton, John Devoe (1891). "A Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations, Ancient and Modern". New York: G. P. Putnam. p. 151. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ Erasmus, Desiderius (2005). Grant, John N. (ed.). Collected Works of Erasmus. Vol. 35: Adages Ill iv 1 to IV ii 100. Translated by Drysdall, Denis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 134. ISBN 0802036430. Read online: Erasmus (2005), p. 134, at Google Books; compare Ἰχθὺν νηχέσθαι διδάσκεις
  3. ^ Muehl, Louis Baker et al. (1999). Trading Cultures in the Classroom: Two American Teachers in China, p. 18, at Google Books; 班门弄斧: display one's slight skill before an expert e.g. 在你面前班门弄斧,太不好意思了 (I'm making a fool of myself trying to show off before an expert like you)