adage

noun ad·age \ ˈa-dij \

|Updated on: 21 Jun 2018

Examples: adage in a Sentence

Definition of adage

: a saying often in metaphorical form that typically embodies a common observation

She reminded him of the adage: "A penny saved is a penny earned."

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Examples of adage in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples of adage from the Web

The baseball adage that hope springs eternal sounds most appropriate as the Aberdeen IronBirds start play again Friday.

— The Aegis, "Hope springs eternal [Editorial]," 13 June 2018
Those in Congress who ignored this adage—like then-Rep.

— WSJ, "We All See the Iceberg but Nobody Is Steering," 10 June 2018
The adage is especially relevant for climate-warming greenhouse gases, which are crucial to manage—and challenging to measure.

— katie langin, Science | AAAS, "Top stories: NASA’s carbon monitoring cuts, a cancer drug flop, and the fight over one salmon gene," 11 May 2018
There’s that adage: Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.

— elizabeth kiefer, refinery29.com, "Amanda Carpenter On Our Broken Political System & Why We Love It When Trump Lies," 1 May 2018
Canary yellow swirls next to dark burgundy, and chartreuse grabs the eye when paired with vermilion. Upend the adage of separating warm colors (like red) and cool ones (blues), and go for shock.

— amy merrick, WSJ, "5 Lessons From the Punk Rockers of Gardening," 26 Apr. 2018
As the adage goes, politics are downstream of culture.

— emma grey ellis, WIRED, "Meet Badass, the Grassroots Activists Hitting Revenge Porn Where It Lives," 26 Apr. 2018
The president’s encouraging comments remind me of the old adage: Actions speak louder than words.

— casey guernsey, Fortune, "I’m a Farmer and Trump Voter. Here’s How He Can Keep Our Support.," 18 Apr. 2018
And as the adage goes, a lawyer who represents himself has fool for a client (and the President isn't even a lawyer).

— gloria borger, CNN, "The runaway president: Trump is the lawyer-in-chief," 18 Apr. 2018

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.

Origin and Etymology of 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.

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First Known Use: 1530

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