[meteorite-list] Pot Coloring The Kettle Black

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2016 19:38:35 -0400
Message-ID: <1556b07b49e-4868-5a5f_at_webprd-m66.mail.aol.com>

Captain Blood wrote:

"Hi all, Teaching Anthropology, which includes linguistics, I began over
30 years ago to collect the origins of phrases.
The original phrase in this instance is
"Pot calling the kettle black."

=====================================
You are a cunning anthropologist Michael, but I disagree. The context is not at all my affair, so I only comment on the use of Adam's original aphorism or proverb he intended. Though there are even older proverbs capturing his thought, I think he might have preferred to use the Sufi proverb from the middle ages, hundreds of years before the pot/kettle abomination existed:

"Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader,
are your own nature reflected in them." (Rumi ca. AD 1250)

The pot and kettle saying is so butchered from its origin and barely resembles it, and yours is not the original. It is fair game to use as he did, since there is no authority on such idioms and the interpretation is supported, whether it sounds good to everyone's ear or only to some. I have traced the origin of the pot/kettle proverb undisputedly to the ancient Greek, "Snake and the Crab" and it intended hypocrisy, whereas the reflection/coloring suggests that the accused reserves the right to be pure and without fault, a different concept. Pot calling the kettle black is a late-comer, and already a poor corruption of a 3000 year old proverb that diminishes the original, so that is why I feel the writer can appropriate it as they feel convenient and not be beholden to any higher authority on its use due to the selection of an arbitrary point in time, and Adam has referenced his with a less common modern variant. English is always evolving, and this is a living example of how it happens.

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Blood via Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
To: Paul Gessler <cetuspa at shaw.ca>; Met. Adam Hupe <raremeteorites at centurylink.net>; Meteorite List <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sat, Jun 18, 2016 7:56 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Pot Coloring The Kettle Black

Hi all,
        Teaching Anthropology, which includes linguistics, I began over
30 years ago to collect the origins of phrases.
        The original phrase in this instance is
"Pot calling the kettle black."
        Michael Blood


On 6/16/16 8:11 PM, "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
wrote:

> Pot Coloring The Kettle Black


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Received on Sun 19 Jun 2016 07:38:35 PM PDT