proverbn.
/ˈprɒvəːb/, U.S. /ˈprɑˌvərb/ 1. † c. to a proverb: to an extent that has become proverbial; proverbially. Obsolete.
a. A short, traditional, and pithy saying; a concise sentence, typically metaphorical or alliterative in form, stating a general truth or piece of advice; an adage or maxim.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > [noun]
byspelc1000
bywordc1050
forbysena1250
riotc1330
proverbc1375
sayingc1390
paroemia1550
nayworda1616
diverb1624
proverbial1645
sooth1655
proverbialism1830
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > phrase > [noun] > proverb
proverbc1375
ditton1572
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > an individual case or instance > [noun] > typical or representative case > that which typically exhibits a quality
image?1534
abridgement1605
abstracta1616
proverb1659
incarnation1821
imprint1857
embodiment1868
c1375 G. Chaucer Monk's Tale 3436 What man that hath freendes thurgh fortune, Mishap wol make hem enemys, I gesse; This prouerbe is ful sooth and ful commune.
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) 299 Proverbes kanst thiself ynowe..Ayeins that vice.
c1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Katherine (Arun. 396) (1893) ii. 254 The grey hors, whil his gres groweth, May sterue for hunger; thus seyth the prouerbe.
1481 W. Caxton tr. Hist. Reynard Fox (1970) 8 It is a comyn prouerbe An Enemyes mouth, sayth seeld wel.
1553 T. Wilson Arte of Rhetorique ii. f. 66 What nede I heape all these together, seynge Heywodes Prouerbes are in prynte?
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 47 As the Prouerbe in Englande is, Set a Knaue on horsebacke, and you shall see him shoulder a Knight.
1601 J. Wheeler Treat. Commerce 58 For it is merry in Hall, where beards wagge all, according to that olde right English Prouerbe of our Ancestours.
1659 J. Howell To Knowingest Kind of Philologers in Proverbs sig. a4, in Lex. Tetraglotton (1660) Proverbs may not improperly be called the Philosophy of the Common Peeple, or, according to Aristotle, the truest Reliques of old Philosophy.
1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 171 What is a Proverb, but the Experience and Observation of several Ages, gathered and summ'd up into one Expression?
1768 D. Garrick Let. 13 Sept. (1963) II. 626 We have a proverb that says—out of sight, out of mind; I fear it is so with him.
1792 H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry (1937) III. i. 11 It comes to the old proverb at last, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, Let the cobler stick to his last.
1832 E. C. Wines Two Years & Half in Amer. Navy (1833) II. 142 Let them act upon the principal of the old Spanish proverb, El que no sabe lo que es la guerra, que vaya a ver [note ‘He who is ignorant of what war is, let him become a soldier’].
1850 H. Martineau Introd. Hist. Peace II. iv. xii. 159 Hence it was that those words..passed..into a proverb.
1871 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 162 Sancho, with his stock of proverbs, the ready money of human experience.
1909 Chatterbox 166/2 The ‘saying’ referred to is not..a familiar proverb or an ancient adage.
1953 R. Davies Enthusiasms (1991) 33 There is a Welsh proverb which says ‘A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom’.
1992 Economist 4 Jan. 58/3 ‘Better to be in front of a chicken, than behind a pig’ goes a Taiwanese proverb.
b. (the Book of) Proverbs n. a book of the Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures comprising several collections of maxims and instructive sayings in poetic form, attributed to Solomon or other authors.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > Bible, Scripture > Testament > Old Testament > divisions of Old Testament > [noun] > Proverbs
(the Book of) Proverbsa1382
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1963) Kings Prol. 53 Þe þredde [part] is of Salamon, hafynge thre bookis, prouerbis þat þei clepyn parablys, þat is, Masloth; þe ferþe ecclesiasten..þe fifþe is song of songes.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 11904 Salamon seyþ..Yn a boke of Prouerbyys.
c1450 (a1400) R. Lavynham Treat. Seven Deadly Sins (Harl. 211) (1956) 14 (MED) It is alwey good to fle þe company of þe enuyous man, as Salomon consaylith in his bok of prouerbis.
a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCxiiv Than shall it be veryfyed that Salomon sayth in his prouerbes.
1595 W. Burton Rowsing of Sluggard i. 9 Wherfore is she good, or what profite commeth by her,..that had neuer any leisure yet to peruse the Prouerbes of Salomon?
1659 H. Thorndike Epil. Trag. Church Eng. i. xxxi. 212 Ecclesiasticus..descants indeed upon Solomons plain song, in the VIIIth and IXth of the Proverbs.
1699 Old Kirk Chron. 81 Three duzan Bybles..with some duzan Proverbs.
a1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 73 Solomon..fronts his writings, in the beginning of the Proverbs, with most express gospel.
1784 T. Holcroft Noble Peasant ii. iii. 33 Your discourse is such a mixture of sense and nonsense, that it is like reading the Proverbs of Solomon, interlined with the merry exploits of Jack the Giant-killer.
1859 Harper's Mag. Feb. 408/1 The aphoristic form is peculiar to the book of Proverbs alone.
1880 W. Newton Serm. for Boys & Girls (1881) 203 He turned to the third chapter of Proverbs and read it over.
1913 G. F. Moore Lit. Old Test. xxiii. 240 Job..belongs to the literature of Jewish Wisdom, with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
1938 Jewish Q. Rev. 29 113 The memra was personified in Jewish religious thought as Wisdom had been personified in Proverbs.
2002 Black Music Res. Jrnl. 22 106 The dirijan recited a few verses from the book of Proverbs.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > [adverb] > much talked about > proverbially
proverbially1653
to a proverb1743
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xiii. f. 296v The admirable prowes of Amphialus (by a contrarie) brought forth the remembrance of the cowardise of Clinias: in so much, as it grew almost to a prouerb.
1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (1 Cor. i. 26) Hence it grew to a Proverb.., That Hell was paved with Priests shaven crowns, and great mens head-pieces.
1660 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. III. iii. 13 Abdera a Town of Thrace, noted for the simplicity of the Inhabitants which grew even to a proverb.
1683 W. Kennett tr. Erasmus Witt against Wisdom 48 Who is so silly as to be Ignoramus to a Proverb?
1743 in A. D. Candler et al. Georgia Rec. (c1913–16) XXIII. 513 He had then recourse to his Usual Salve, (well known, to all persons at Savannah with whom he converses, even to a proverb) That He was Seventy Years of Age, His Memory decayed, etc.
1766 J. Fordyce Serm. Young Women II. xii. 271 That revengeful disposition, of which your sex have been accused even to a proverb.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. Pref. 7 To depend on foreigners, partial, to a proverb, to their own country.
1817 J. Evans Excursion to Windsor 482 A country, swampy even to a proverb.
1865 E. C. Gaskell Cousin Phillis ii. 56 Our air here is good to a proverb.
1888 Times 21 Jan. 15/3 The fondness of the missel bird for the mistletoe was remarked on by the Romans, even to a proverb.
2. † a. A general term of contempt or reproach; (also) a person who or thing which is the object of scorn; = byword n. 2. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > [noun] > person or thing much talked about > that has become proverbial
proverba1382
byword1535
fable1535
myth1853
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > condition of being held in contempt > [noun] > state or quality of being contemptible > object of contempt > proverbially
proverba1382
byword1535
by-talk1579
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > [noun] > action of expressing contempt > vocally > a word of contempt
proverb1535
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) 3 Kings ix. 7 Israel schal ben in to prouerbe [L. proverbium] & in to fable to alle peplis [1535 Coverd. shall be come a byworde and fabell amonge all nacions].
c1410 tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 109 Westsex men haveþ in proverbe [L. habent in proverbio] of hiȝe despite ‘hynderlyng’ whiche sowneþ i-cast doun fro honeste.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Hab. ii. B Shall not all these take vp a prouerbe agaynst him, and mocke him with a byworde?
1560 Bible (Geneva) Deut. xxviii. 37 And thou shalt be a wonder, a prouerbe & a commune talke among all people.
1662 W. Austin Triumphus Hymenæus sig. Hv/1 Aphetoriae opes..is used as a proverb for abundance of wealth.
1680 Bp. G. Burnet Some Passages Life Earl of Rochester 173 One of the Glories of his Age was become a Proverb.
1757 J. Wesley Let. 19 Sept. (1931) III. 226 God never used us to any purpose till we were a proverb of reproach.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1776 II. 73 [Johnson:] He should take care not to be made a proverb.
1794 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) I. 67 I became a proverb to the University for Idleness—the time which I should have bestowed on the academic studies, I employed in dreaming out wild Schemes of impossible extrication.
a1859 W. C. Roscoe Poems (1860) v. iv. 204 Build up the copestone of my ignominy, And make my name a proverb of contempt.
b. A thing that is proverbial or commonly known. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1675 R. Ferguson Interest of Reason in Relig. 133 The Platonick and Pythagorick numbers grew into a proverb for their Darkness.
1707 J. Chamberlayne Angliæ Notitia (ed. 22) i. iii. 10 Buckinghamshire Bread and Beef is a Proverb for their Goodness.
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 509. ⁋8 Mr. Hobson,..when a Man came for a Horse,..obliged him to take the Horse which stood next to the Stable-Door... From whence it became a Proverb..to say ‘Hobson's Choice’.
1771 C. Powys Passages from Diaries Mrs. Powys (1899) 138 This daughter..I've long known by name, being almost a proverb for plainness.
1847 P. H. Gosse & R. Hill Birds of Jamaica 47 The Potoo has become a proverb of ugliness.
1854 J. H. Newman Lect. Hist. Turks ii. i. 72 Siberia goes for a proverb for cold: India is a proverb for heat.
1876 in Ld. Houghton Poet. Wks. 17 The repute of Tempe as a proverb of surpassing beauty, is exclusively Roman.
1976 Times 10 Jan. 6/2 The White Clown stands forth in the parade, his limp arms dangling down his white casaque, his feet turned outwards, a proverb of naivity.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > figures of meaning > [noun] > allegory > an allegory
likenessc1175
parablec1250
proverbc1384
similitudea1425
allegoryc1450
semblable1547
allusion1548
mythology1603
parabolic1829
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) John xvi. 25 I haue spokun to ȝou thes thingis in prouerbis [L. proverbiis], or derke saumplis; the our cometh whanne now I schal not speke to ȝou in prouerbis [L. proverbiis], but opynly.
?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 99v A Proverbe, parabola.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) John xvi. f. cxlvv His disciples sayd vnto hym: loo nowe speakest thou playnly, and thou vsest no proverbe.
1611 Bible (King James) Prov. i. 6 To vnderstand a prouerbe, and the interpretation; the wordes of the wise, and their darke sayings. View more context for this quotation
1787 G. Gregory tr. R. Lowth Lect. Sacred Poetry Hebrews II. 172 Some obscurity succeeds, when the principal, or perhaps the whole force of a proverb or parable, does not lie in the direct and literal sense.
1841 R. C. Trench Parables (1877) i. 7 Those are called ‘proverbs’ in St. John, which, if not strictly parables, yet claim much closer affinity to the parable than to the proverb, being in fact allegories.
4. A play, esp. a French play, which uses a proverb as the foundation of the plot. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > other types of play
king play1469
king game1504
historya1509
chronicle history1600
monology1608
horseplaya1627
piscatory1631
stock play1708
petite pièce1712
mimic1724
ballad opera1730
ballad farce1735
benefit-play1740
potboiler1783
monodrama1793
extravaganza1797
theo-drama1801
monodrame1803
proverb1803
stock piece1804
bespeak1807
ticket-night1812
dramaticle1813
monopolylogue1819
pièce d'occasion1830
interlude1831
mimea1834
costume piece1834
mummers' play1849
history play1850
gag-piece1860
music drama1874
well-made1881
playlet1884
two-decker1884
slum1885
kinderspiel1886
thrill1886
knockabout1887
two-hander1888
front-piece1889
thriller1889
shadow-play1890
mime play1894
problem play1894
one-acter1895
sex play1899
chronicle drama1902
thesis-play1902
star vehicle1904
folk-play1905
radio play1908
tab1915
spy play1919
one-act1920
pièce à thèse1923
dance-drama1924
a mess of plottage1926
turkey1927
weepie1928
musical1930
cliffhanger1931
mime drama1931
triangle drama1931
weeper1934
spine-chiller1940
starrer1941
scorcher1942
teleplay1947
straw-hatter1949
pièce noire1951
pièce rose1951
tab show1951
conversation piece1952
psychodrama1956
whydunit1968
mystery play1975
State of the Nation1980
1803 B. Greatheed Jrnl. 22 Jan. (1953) iii. 34 There you see half a dozen farces or proverbs of a night, smartly playd, particularly by Brunet who is a very good actor.
1842 W. T. Brande Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 994/1 Proverb..In dramatic literature..the term has been applied to short pieces, in which some proverb or popular saying is taken as the foundation of the plot... Carmantelli was the most successful writer of proverbs at the time of their highest popularity.
1879 J. Knight in Athenæum 28 June [With reference to the Comédie Française, then in England] The comedies or the proverbs of Musset meanwhile defy the translator, and their representation calls for a class of acting of which our stage knows nothing.
1893 Nation (N.Y.) 20 July 50/3 She [sc. Comtesse de Chambrun]..was fond of acting in her own private theatre... Sometimes she wrote a ‘proverb’ herself, and created the principal part.
1929 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 7 Mar. (Mag. section) 1/3 The second offering is a proverb in one act.
1974 French Rev. 48 390 For advanced students, it is even possible to return to one form of the dramatic proverb, by having them prepare a skit exemplifying a proverb.
2000 P. Gethner in A. R. Larsen & C. H. Winn Revolutionary French Women xix. 377 A dramatic proverb is a playlet, usually comic.., that illustrates a well-known proverb without using that proverb in the text.
5. In plural. A name for various games played with proverbs or popular sayings, esp. one in which a proverb is to be guessed by asking questions of a circle of players, whose answers must introduce in order each word of it.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > parlour and party games > [noun] > guessing game > specific
what's my thought like?1748
twenty questions1786
charade1826
how, when, and where1843
proverbs1855
hy-spy1876
game1937
I spy (with my little eye)1946
1738 Gentleman's Mag. Feb. 80/2 With King James the 1st, and the Scottish Nation, was introduced the acting of Proverbs and Games of Dumb-shew.]
1855 Home Games for People 104 Proverbs. One of the party is sent out of the room: the rest busying themselves with thinking of a proverb..to be discovered by him on his return.
1867 ‘Aunt Carrie’ Pop. Pastimes for Field & Fireside 188 Proverbs. The company select some one to leave the room; those remaining agree upon a proverb [etc.].
1879 ‘L. Hoffmann’ Drawing-room Amusem. ii. 50 Proverbs. This is another ‘guessing’ game.
1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 236/3 Proverbs. The old standard game revised, consisting of 100 cards containing the best proverbs.
1910 W. Owen Let. 27 Dec. (1967) 66 We have been playing games (e.g. Proverbs, Memory Tray, etc.) this evening.
1975 Way to Play 257/2 Proverbs... It is sometimes called hidden proverbs, or guessing proverbs.
1984 T. Augarde Oxf. Guide Word Games iii. 28 Proverbs is not normally an acting game, although E. M. Baker in Indoor Games (1912) describes an acted form of it.
Compounds
General attributive and objective.
proverb card n.
ΚΠ
1708 O. Dykes Moral Reflexions Eng. Prov. 274 A Pack of Proverb-Cards, lately printed, and curiously engrav'd with Figures.
1893 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 6 220 The Iroha, or Proverb cards, also consist of ninety-six cards.
1966 S. Mann Collecting Playing Cards vii. 141 Proverb Cards, containing pleasant Devices, suited to the most witty English Proverbs. Made c. 1700.
1998 Asahi Shimbun (Japan) (Nexis) 28 Mar. As the proverb cards are randomly read, the players must spot and quickly seize the matching ‘taking’ card.
proverb-hunting n.
ΚΠ
1902 F. E. Hulme Proverb-lore 89 Proverb-hunting is a very pleasant recreation.
1952 Shakespeare Q. 3 263 I know too well the sinister effect of proverb-hunting upon mental equilibrium.
1998 T. M. Krier Refiguring Chaucer in Renaissance i. 11 Speght's proverb hunting poses a difficulty.
proverb-monger n.
ΚΠ
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. Dv Without the consent of some great prouerb-monger.
1679 R. Barclay Apol. True Christian Divinity xvii. 187 By coining this it seems he affects to be a Proverb-monger.
?1769 C. H. Wilmot tr. M. de Cervantes Saavedra Hist. Renowned Don Quixote II. 214 ‘Hold, thou confounded proverb-monger!’ said the knight.
1857 M. Gatty Legendary Tales (1858) 4 A genuine proverb-monger—he who chills off your enthusiasm by a tame truism.
2004 Aberdeen (Scotl.) Press & Jrnl. (Nexis) 6 Sept. 4 Like a Chinese proverb-monger, the Royal Bank of Scotland says the North Sea is at an ‘interesting stage’ for oil & gas players and money providers alike.
proverb wisdom n.
ΚΠ
1902 F. E. Hulme Proverb-lore 229 Wealth has its store of proverb-wisdom even in more abundance than poverty has.
2005 M. K. Asante & A. Mazama Encycl. Black Stud. 138/1 Dialectics on oral traditions, proverb wisdom, spirituals, and the Luo concept of time.
Derivatives
ˈproverb-like adj. and adv.
ΚΠ
c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme xliv. 53 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 36 Prouerb-like our name is worne.
1612 T. Wilson Christian Dict. 102 [It] makes the whole expression much sweeter, and proverb-like in the original Heb[rew].
1891 Old & New Test. Student 13 35 The truth of the superscription that makes Solomon the author of this psalm, is confirmed by the many figures in it drawn from nature..and by its proverb-like movement.
1993 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 16 Dec. 70 (advt.) Willis Barnstone offers humorous proverb-like poems that combine playful use of paradox with everyday images and sudden insights.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
proverbv.
/ˈprɒvəːb/, U.S. /ˈprɑˌvərb/ 1. transitive. To utter in the form of a proverb; to speak of proverbially; to make a byword of.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > utter or describe proverbially [verb (transitive)]
proverba1425
proverbize1605
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > infamy or notoriety > make infamous [verb (transitive)] > proverbially
proverb1671
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) iii. 293 Thise wise clerkes that ben dede Han evere..proverbed to us yonge That ‘firste vertu is to kepe tonge’.
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. E You haue most learnedly prouerbde it, commending the vertue of patience or forbearance.
1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 203 Am I not sung and proverbd for a Fool In every street..? View more context for this quotation
1711 C. Brent Ess. concerning Nature & Guilt of Lying 186 He shall be sensible that he is become discredited, and Proverbed for a Lyar.
1799 S. Turner Hist. Anglo-Saxons I. 39 He has been proverbed for his fidelity.
1823 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. 2nd Ser. I. 457 Nations proverb each other; counties flout counties.
1841 Ld. J. Manners England's Trust ii. 64 One short month should hear his dastard name Proverbed as emblem of disgrace and shame.
1857 O. B. Bunce Love in '76 i. 7 Oh, sir, if staleness went to make their age, they would be proverbed instead of Methuselah.
1915 Washington Post 25 June 8/4 Some wiseacre, probably when baseball was in its infancy, proverbed something regarding every dog having its day.
1995 J. H. Lamb Rhetoric of Suffering ii. 39 Like Samson, he is sung and proverbed: ‘And now I am their song, yea, I am their by-word’.
2. transitive (in passive). To be provided with a proverb; to be quoted a proverb as a reproach. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > utter or describe proverbially [verb (transitive)] > provide with a proverb
proverb1597
1597 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet i. iv. 37 I am prouerbd with a Grandsire phrase, Ile be a candleholder and looke on. View more context for this quotation
1885 P. Holdsworth Station Hunting on Warrego 16 I am proverbed with tauntings by fools, and contemned as unclean by the just.
1997 R. P. Honeck Prov. in Mind 83 ‘Dad, I know I should have put the car in the garage but I was busy,’ said by a teenager who got proverbed with ‘A stitch’ after the car was hit while parked in the street.
3. intransitive. To utter or compose proverbs. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > compose or utter proverbs [verb (intransitive)]
proverb1649
proverbialize1777
1649 [see proverbing n. at Derivatives].
1956 Nevada State Jrnl. 18 July 8/8 White is probably proverbing to himself today as he breathes the air of freedom.
Derivatives
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > [adjective]
proverbial?a1475
paroemial1652
proverbed1788
paroemiac1820
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > saying, maxim, adage > proverb > [adjective] > furnished with proverbs
proverbed1788
1788 R. Burns Let. 2 Aug. (2001) I. 260 Unlike sage, proverb'd Wisdom's hard-wrung boon.
1845 S. Turner Richard III Pref. 8 A regular story, corresponding with this proverbed King's real story, or rather biography.
ˈproverbing n. rare
ΚΠ
1649 J. Milton Observations in Articles of Peace with Irish Rebels 64 All thir paines tak'n to seem so wise in proverbing, serves but to conclude them down right slaves.
1992 L. Haring Verbal Arts in Madagascar i. 33 Riddling, proverbing, exchanging hainteny, and formal speechmaking are all games in the formal sense defined by Brian Sutton-Smith.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
> as lemmas
pro-verb
pro-verb n.
Brit. /ˈprəʊvəːb/
, /ˈprəʊvəːb/U.S. /ˈproʊˌvərb/
/ˈproʊˌvərb/ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > verb > [noun] > other specific types of verb
vocative verbc1414
activec1450
passivec1450
substantive verba1475
neuter1530
gesture1612
nominal1666
quiescent1720
reduplicative1756
dative verb1844
factitive1845
preterite-present1859
compound verb1863
pro-verb1868
preterito-presentia1870
preteritive present1872
action verb1877
verbid1914
inversive1931
eventive1946
hypothetical1957
non-factive1970
commonization1973
contrafactive1985
1868 S. Kerl Common School Gram. Eng. Lang. 150 Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase.
1907 J. M. Grainger Stud. King James Bible 19 Do is sometimes used as a pro-verb, to avoid repetition of an antecedent verb.
1992 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 37 52 All other verbs presuppose be and almost all other verbs are hyponyms of do, as can be seen by the use of do as a pro-verb.
<
n.c1375
v.a1425as lemmas