Steve from Wilmington, North Carolina, wonders about a phrase his mother used: “Everybody to their taste,” said the old lady as she kissed the cow, meaning “Different things appeal to different individuals.” It’s an example of a Wellerism, a joking statement that consists of a familiar saying, a particular individual who says the phrase, and an additional twist at the end. Another example is “That’s one way to look at it,” said the mouse as she ran across the mirror. The term Wellerism was inspired by the beloved character Sam Weller from the Charles Dickens novel The Pickwick Papers (Bookshop|Amazon). Weller is forever saying things like “Hope our acquaintance may be a long one,” as the gentleman said to the five-pound note. Russian anti-proverbs have a similar twist. You might quote to a workaholic the Russian proverb that translates as One cannot earn all the money, but the anti-proverb is One cannot earn all the money — some of it will have to be stolen. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Said the Old Lady as She Kissed the Cow”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Steve Lee from Wilmington, North Carolina.
Hi, Steve. Welcome to the show.
Oh, thanks. Happy to be here.
What can we do for you?
Well, I often heard my mother say an expression and no one else. I never heard anyone else say it.
When she, when her style or taste or something was challenged, she would respond by saying, well, everybody to their own taste said the old lady as she kissed a cow.
And, yeah, I’m curious about that, where that came from. I never heard anybody else say it.
And how did that land in the discussion? Did she feel justified and satisfied having said that?
Yeah, her hackles were up a little bit, but she smiled as she said it.
So give that to us again. Everybody to their own taste said the old lady as she kissed the cow.
Yeah, Grant, this is a perfect example of the kind of jokey statement that we call a wellerism.
A wellerism, yes. A wellerism.
Yeah, and a wellerism has three different elements. It has the familiar saying or phrase or proverb, as you said, in this case, everybody to their own taste.
And then it has somebody who says the phrase, which is the lady. And then finally, another few words that give it a twist. So it turns out to be funny.
Another example of that would be the phrase, that’s one way to look at it, said the mouse as she ran across the mirror.
So it’s one way to look. But you take the familiar expression that you’re using in the conversation and you just add that jokey element there.
So these are all Wellerisms.
Yeah, they’re all Wellerisms. They’ve been around for millennia. They go all the way back to antiquity, and they’re used all over the world in different ways.
But the term Wellerism in English refers to Sam Weller, who was a popular character in the Charles Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers.
He was a cockney guy who was always saying all these funny things like hope our acquaintance may be a long one, as the gentleman said to the five pound note.
That is, you know, he’ll use that in a conversation. Hope our acquaintance will be a long one.
But then he adds that little part that makes it funny. So those are called Wellerisms.
And that’s what your mom was using.
Well, she was an avid reader lifelong. And even though she came from a very rural community and she did have cows, they had cow after cow that she helped milk and all the cows were named Nancy.
But do you suppose that actual same one that I heard was in the novel?
It’s not in the novel. It actually predates the novel by a number of years. It goes back to at least 1820.
It’s one of the classic Wellerisms, in fact, and you’ll find it mentioned again and again when Wellerisms are discussed.
Well, listen, thank you so much. You’ve shared some light on sayings from my childhood.
We really appreciate it, Steve. Thank you for sharing your memories.
All right. You guys take care.
Okay, you too, Steve. Thanks. Bye-bye.
Martha, these remind me a lot of Russian anti-proverbs, which take a traditional proverb and put on a little twist ending.
There’s one, for example, which is one cannot earn all the money, which you say to someone who seems to work all the time and tries to make as much money as possible.
But the anti-proverb version is one cannot earn all the money. Some will have to be stolen.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the Russian anti-proverb tends to have like this, you know, very meaningful proverb that’s useful advice. And at the end of it is something dark and, you know, a little underground and maybe a little disrespectful.
So one cannot earn all the money. Some will have to be stolen.
It sort of sounds like he who hesitates is lost. So look before you leap.
Yeah, exactly.
I don’t know if that’s an English anti-proverb. I just thought of that.
That’s a really good one, though.
