Re: Every
cloud has a silver lining
Posted by ESC on
January 18, 2003 In Reply to: Re: 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' (1634)
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' (1852), 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' (1869) 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).
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