Institute for Meaning-Centered Education

I immensely enjoyed participating in the High-Level Political Forum 2024, United Nations. I am grateful to The Blue Tree Foundation, Republic of South Korea, for inviting me to be part of this panel on Global Poverty in the Era of Digital Intelligence.
~ Dr Patrick Blessinger

Partnership to End Global Poverty in the Era of Digital Intelligence: Social Digital Entrepreneurship (HLPF Side Event) At this side event, panelists will explore innovative and sustainable solutions to poverty eradication, with specific focus on the importance of global partnership, social digital entrepreneurship, and the role of youth for our future.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐌𝐒
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏: 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞

Language Learning Academy specializes in teaching online lessons in Danish, German, and English to adult students across the world. In this series of blogposts, we are going to look at some of the idioms and proverbs that exist in all three languages. Generally, such sayings have similar meanings but use different imagery.

The first one we will look at is the common proverb 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚. This phrase is used to describe choices or decisions that will move you from a bad or difficult situation to a worse one, often as the unintended result of trying to escape your current circumstances.

The proverb is derived from a Greek saying that talks about 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙤𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙢𝙚. It was first recorded in a poem by Germanicus Caesar (15 BCE – 19 CE), appearing in a collection of poetry called the Greek Anthology. In the poem, Caesar writes about a hare fleeing from a dog. The hare tries to escape by jumping into the sea, but the escape attempt leads to a much worse situation. Instead of avoiding attack from the dog on land, the unfortunate hare is caught and eaten by a dogfish shark as soon as it enters the water.

In English, the earliest recorded use of the idiom is by the Catholic Renaissance humanist Thomas More in a pamphlet dating back to 1532. The pamphlet was part of More’s war on words with William Tyndale, one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation. In it, More says about his adversaries that 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙚 𝙡𝙮𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙮𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙮𝙧𝙚. More’s image of a fish jumping out of a frying pan has later appeared in other stories, including one about a fisherman, who tries to cook a bunch of live fish. Desperate to escape the hot oil, the fish agree to jump out of the pan. Their rash decision sends them into the flames instead, where, like the Greek hare, they instantly perish.

The Danish version of the proverb can also be traced back to the Greek saying and the poem by Germanicus Caesar, but in Danish, the smoke has not become a frying pan. Instead, the Danish proverb talks about moving from the ash into the fire: 𝙃𝙖𝙣 𝙠𝙤𝙢 𝙛𝙧𝙖 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙞 𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣, 𝙙𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙙𝙚 𝙟𝙤𝙗 = 𝙃𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙟𝙤𝙗𝙨.

Whereas fire is the chosen illustration of the bad decision both in English and in Danish, the equivalent German saying uses different imagery entirely. It is also thought to have a slightly different origin story. The German proverb is called 𝙑𝙤𝙢 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙪𝙛𝙚 𝙠𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣 and translates roughly into 𝙂𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙪𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧. The saying has been around for centuries, but its roots are not entirely clear. Language historians believe it was first used somewhere in the Orient. “Traufe” refers to a downspout or a rainwater pipe coming from the top of a roof. In the olden days, such pipes would overflow with water and debris during a heavy rainfall, and the German proverb creates the image of someone, already wet, who runs through the rain to seek shelter under a roof. Once there, however, the gutter overflows, thereby completely drenching the person in water and dirt.

Proverbs are fascinating and achieving a high level of proficiency in a foreign language requires a comparative study of similar sayings in one’s mother tongue. For instance, you can always recognize a bad translation of a work of fiction on how much attention the translator has paid to the proverbs.

If you should be interested in taking lessons through Language Learning Academy, you can contact us here on Facebook or find more information on our school website: www.languagelearningacademy.net

Blogpost written by: Gunhild Jensen, Founder and CEO of LLA.

Blogpost sources:
https://praxistipps.focus.de/vom-regen-in-die-traufe-das-steckt-hinter-der-redewendung_123320
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/out+of+the+frying+pan+into+the+fire
https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/f/frying-pan.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Anthology
https://hosbeg.com/meaning-of-out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire/

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