"Idioms" Thursday

The pot calling the kettle black
Meaning

The notion of a criticism a person is making of another could equally well apply to themself.

Origin
This phrase originates in Cervantes' Don Quixote, or at least in Thomas Shelton's 1620 translation - Cervantes Saavedra's History of Don Quixote:

"You are like what is said that the frying-pan said to the kettle, 'Avant, black-browes'."

The first person who is recorded as using the phrase in English was William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in his Some fruits of solitude, 1693:

"For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality... is for the Pot to call the Kettle black."

Shakespeare had previously expressed a similar notion in a line in Troilus and Cressida, 1601- "The raven chides blackness."


(Source: www.phrases.org.uk)

So I chose this idiom mostly because I happened upon it in a british phrase site. I love the site, for giving the origin as well as its meaning and usage.

If I were asked to translate this axiom, I would do the following:

ACCUSE (you to me)(topic) SIMILAR- 2h(you and me) (comment)

This may be one I have to do a video for - I will let you know.

ACCUSE and SIMILAR are directional, and available in neutral space at ASLpro.com