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BeN1
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Post by BeN1 »

Last edited by BeN1 on 14 Jun 2026 07:45, edited 2 times in total.
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hope
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Re: Spoking words

Post by hope »

The early bird gets the worm..
Or literally..."morning-hour has gold in the hand"
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Re: Spoking words

Post by Redbeck »

Guten Tag BeN1 Willkommen im Oracle Forum und vielen Dank fur Ihren Beitrag.

In English, this saying was included in John Ray's A collection of English proverbs 1670, 1678: as 'The early bird catcheth the worm.' Therefore the title of the work taken in isolation strongly suggests that the saying was already considered proverbial by the 17th century. In fact it was first recorded in English in 1605. Perhaps another indication that it was already in common parlance in the 16th Century is that it has a very Shakespearian Tudor ring to it, although put in context it is quite likely coined in agrarian rural England rather than the big city. As William Caxton began commercial printing in Britain in 1476 works of reference and romance would have become commonplace possessions among the wealthier classes of Tudor Britain as a way of spreading knowledge. While Elizabeth 1 was still Queen of England at her death in 1603 and William Shakespeare, a countryman himself from the definitively agricultural county of Warwickshire, died in 1616.

In terms of its origins in Germany it is harder to trace, but that said while ties between the Protestant English queen and her court and the Seven Republics of the Netherlands were quite strong at the time, they were perhaps not so good with the Holy Roman Empire, a vast territory of land made up of many provinces each governed by their own ruler or prince which included Germany and Austria, stretching as far as Poland. However, the symbolism of a bird tugging at a worm that has recently surfaced in the early morning dew and the resultant metaphor in some form of words is a predictable occurence across Europe.

There are a variety of differently worded definitions, which amount to more or less the same end product:

One who arrives first has the best chance for success. Dictionary.com
The person who takes the earliest opportunity to do something will gain the advantage over others. Oxford Dictionary
Said to advise someone that they will have an advantage if they do something immediately or before anyone else does it. Cambridge Dictionary
Success comes to those who prepare

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Dana Ellyn 'Early Bird Catches the Worm' 29" x 60" acrylic on banner
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