Browse phrases beginning with: [A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z] The pot calling the kettle blackMeaning The notion of a criticism a person is making of another could equally well apply to themself. OriginThis phrase originates in Cervantes' Don Quixote, or at least in Thomas Shelton's 1620 translation - Cervantes Saavedra's History of Don Quixote:
The first person who is recorded as using the phrase in English was William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in his Some fruits of solitude, 1693:
Shakespeare had previously expressed a similar notion in a line in Troilus and Cressida, 1601- "The raven chides blackness." |