I know this question is difficult as their proverbial or idiomatic status implies that they can only be detected once they have a certain degree of currency in a folk group. Still, do you know of any phrase (idiom, collocation, proverb -- anything) that is at the beginning of its life or might "catch on" in the near future?
"People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."
Thank you for your answers. The complex nominal "Trump shutdown" is very recent indeed, and that's only logical. As for the "glass houses" proverb, it has existed for centuries and is not started spreading recently.
You are welcome,
But over time, this term can acquire a great metaphorical meaning when someone wants to carry out his work in spite of everyone. You can see the American press.
Good Luck.
If you don't have money, hide your face (Nigeria)
My oga at the top (Naija, Nigeria)
"It made my day" - step by step this phrazem is translated into Slavic languages - pl. To zrobiło mój/mi dzień
Brace yourselves, the winter is coming is a good example I think. ALthough it does not function as a proverb, more as a saying (at least according to Slovene, Czech/Slovak terminology) Some other GOT quotes started to be used in other contexts as well.
And if not - the patterns such as (Brace yourself/yourselves) the X is/are coming derived from them definetely are a part of modern phraseology. I think these patterns should be investigated more. Armstrong's "A small step for X" shows the same situation - the pattern works phraseologically in hundreds of examples of usage, but the original sticks to the original context in most of the cases as I can see in Slovene language corpora.
I have done some research on some of the patterns in a recent article (2015 if I remember correctly) but ut is written n Slovene - I can find some other examples and translate them if you want - just specify what kind of examples you need and I will search for them.
How about sayings that seem to come from African-American popular culture, such as ‘Talk to the hand (‘cos the face ain’t listening)‘ or (apologies for the misogynistic content) ‘Bros before hos’
The GOT quote "Winter is coming" is indeed quite famous now, and is already used metaphorically among young adults. It "made my day" has existed for centuries in English. As for "talk to the hand", it started propagating in the 1990s because of a sitcom and is quite established now. It's still a good candiate for a diachronic study. "Bros before hoes", which was made popular by "How I met your mother" in the early 2000s, is, indeed, a good candidate. I wonder how long ago it was coinded though. I did not know it existed in African-American culture before the show. I've always thought Barney invented it haha. I'll look into it.
Thanks, Damien. You are probably right about the origins of these. I had just heard them from African-American actors. Interesting that TV/ films seem to propagate if not initiate these idioms now. I would recommend ‘Traditional English Language Genres 1950-2000’ by Joanne Green and John Widdowson. It was published in-house by the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, so isn’t easy to find, but you may be able to buy a copy from the School of English, or, if you get the chance to visit Sheffield, you could consult this in the library by arrangement. Joanne, who was the researcher on this project, went on to do a PhD under my supervision on football chants as a modern transformation of a traditional genre (wonderful stuff!)
Of course, a few nicknames invented by Trump have been spreading lately (crooked Hillary, Little Marco etc.) but it's interesting to note that "fake news" and "Make America great again" existed long before him. Also, the democrats coined "Love trumps hate" before he was elected. It doesn't seem to be cathing on.
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