Time and tide...

Posted by ESC on September 14, 2003

In Reply to: Who said it, or sang it? posted by ESC on September 14, 2003

: : I have always known of the phrase or proverb of: "Time and tide wait for no man" Does anyone know where this comes from and who said it first. Where would I find it in print? And am I quoting it correctly? Thanks all!

TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO ONE MAN/TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN - Proverb from the late 14th century. "The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations," Fifth Edition, edited by Elizabeth Knowles (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001). Another reference has more detail. It says, in part: Time and tide wait for no man -- "A familiar saying from the days of sailing ships (when tides determined departure times), this maxim was recorded in its earliest form as 'For wete you well the tyde abydeth no man,' which appeared in Everyman (c. 1500).Virtually the modern saying appeared at the end of the eighteenth century in Andrew Barton's 'The Disappointment or The Force of Credulity' . Barton rendered the saying as 'Time and tide waits for no one,' and the exact modern wording was recorded a few years later by Sir Walter Scott in 'Fortunes of Nigel' ." 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).