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Cut off your nose to spite your face

Posted by ESC on October 11, 2005

In Reply to: Cut off your nose to spite your face posted by Victoria S Dennis on October 11, 2005

: : What is the phrase, "to cut off one's nose to spite their face" means, and where does it come from?
: It means to do something, out of spite and desire to be difficult, that hurts oneself more than anyone else.

DON'T CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE - "Vengeful rage has led to many pointless and foolish acts.but none so stupid as those in which we try to get back at someone else by punishing ourselves.The current proverb was first recorded about 1200 as a Latin saying, 'He who cuts off his nose takes poor revenge for a shame inflected upon him.'." 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). "By 1788 Peter Grose was defining it in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: 'He cut off his nose to be revenged of his face, said of one who, to be revenged of his neighbour, has materially injured himself.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).

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