Examples of adage in a Sentence

that old adage, “the early bird gets the worm”

Recent Examples on the Web And there's a hope that what happens in Vegas breaks the old adage and makes waves in the GOP primary in mid-June, as Laxalt hopes to unseat Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto come November. — Rick Klein, ABC News, 28 Apr. 2022 Earlier in the conversation, Washington recalled an old adage that resonated with him in wake of Smith slapping Rock during Sunday's Oscars broadcast, per The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety. — Abigail Adams, PEOPLE.com, 2 Apr. 2022 Truth, the old adage insists, is the first casualty of war. — David Robert Grimes, Scientific American, 28 Mar. 2022 The Supreme Court has left recusal decisions to the discretion of the justice in question, at odds with the adage that no person should be a judge in his or her own case. — New York Times, 25 Mar. 2022 The adage may sum up India’s recent decision to buy discounted Russian oil. — Megha Mandavia, WSJ, 25 Mar. 2022 The national average has fallen every day since by a fraction of a penny — proving the old adage that gas prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather. — Chris Isidore, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022 In my opinion, the adage speaks to all men in the workforce today. — Joseph Deacetis, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2022 But the computer chip shortage is proving that adage wrong. — Chris Isidore, CNN, 14 Mar. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adage.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for adage

borrowed from Middle French, borrowed from Latin adagiō, adagium, from ad- ad- + ag-, base of aiō, āiō "(I) say" (going back to *ag-i̯ō, going back to an Indo-European verb stem *h₂eǵ-i̯e- "say") + -ium, deverbal noun suffix; akin to Greek ê "(s/he) spoke," án-ōga "(I) command," Armenian asem "(I) say," Tocharian B āks- "announce, proclaim"

Note: The Latin form is possibly adāgiō; the lack of vowel reduction in the second syllable is otherwise unexplained. Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin (Brill, 2008), believes that the base is not aiō, but rather adigō, "I drive/thrust/plunge into, force, impel." Semantically, this is not compelling, and does not in any case solve the problem of the second syllable. On the other hand, the lack of attestation for aiō with any prefixes aside from this noun is striking.

Learn More About adage