Every cloud has a silver lining
Posted by ESC on January 18, 2003
In Reply to: Silver lining posted by R. Berg on January 18, 2003
: : : : Hi, could you explain the meaning of "Silver lining", when and how to use this word?
: : : It means
that a negative situation has produced something that is very positive. The very
positive thing or situation is the "silver lining".
: : : For instance, many
people agree that one of the "silver linings" of World War 2 was the increae in
technology that hastened the development and start of the computer era.
: : I think this comes from thunder clouds, which are often very dark and threatening but which often may have a silver gleam of sunlight along one edge - the 'silver lining' to the cloud.
: "Silver lining" comes from a proverb often heard, "Every cloud has a silver lining," which refers literally to the storm clouds described just above and is extended to the situations described above that.
EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING - "John Milton's masque (dramatic entertainment) 'Comus' gave rise to the current proverb with the lines, 'Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud/ Turn forth her silver lining on the night?' Charles Dickens, in his novel 'Bleak House' , recalled the lines with 'I turn my silver lining outward like Milton's cloud,' and the American impresario Phineas T. Barnum first recorded the wording of the modern saying in 'Struggles and Triumphs' with 'Every cloud,' says the proverb, 'has a silver lining.'" From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).
- Every cloud has a silver lining Bob 01/18/03
See the meaning and origin of the proverb "Every cloud has a silver lining".