• Thu. Mar 12th, 2026

Words of Our Elders – Idioms, Proverbs and Explainations

Bychrisdahi

Feb 10, 2026
Dahiscope Int' Nig' Ltd Abuja Nigeria

1 Our people say that if you are told an idiom or a proverb with the explanation then the bride price of your mother is wasted.

2 It is the child that lifts its arms that one is prone to carry up.

Ask and you will receive

3 The partridge tells the hen not to get excited when she sees a partridge being plucked for all feathered animals are of the same fate.

Collective lot

If a member of your ilk is being victimized, ridiculed or castigated, do not support or enjoy as such a fate may visit you too as a member of that ilk.

4 I and the world

      I and my race     

      I and my nation

      I and my town

      I and my village 

      I and my hamlet

      I and my family

      I and my brother

      I

At the end of it all it boils down to the individual.

 Inherent in us all is that selfish trait.

 5 The traveler is more knowledgeable than the gray headed old one at home.

Your knowledge and wisdom is within the scope of your exposure.

6 The one eyed man has a debt to settle with blindness.

Cutting close to the bone.

Walking the edge.

7 The eyes are cowards.

They flinch.

8 If the belly is cowardly, why did it then opt to be in front?

Often it is the unexpected ones that are the heroes.

9 If a child crawls to you and gives you a bite, then crawl to it and bite it back.

Revenge should be commensurate to the offence

10 If he did not mind your brain and bites you on the head, then do not mind feaces, bite him on the buttocks.

11 The lion asks, If size is the decider, how come I am the king in the same jungle where the elephant is.

    Size is not usually the decider of who is the strongest

    12 Instead of the tortoise’s wife throwing him in a wrestling contest, the tortoise will grab and hold unto a tree trunk.

    Rather than losing totally I might as well eat humble pie.

    Making the best of a humbling situation

    13 What one does not know is beyond one.

    Ignorance makes a supposedly simple issue quite enigmatic

    14 How can you describe an elephant to one who has never seen it before?

      What one does not know is beyond one.

      15 When you point with one finger, the others are pointing at you.

        You who is accusing others, are you sure you are innocent

        16 The firewood of a land, cooks for them.

          The laws and norms of a people protect and provide for them

          17 He who talks loudest is not necessarily he who talks wisest.

            Empty drums usually make the loudest noise

            18 The man who jumps up has surely made a movement but   should realize that he is still where he was before the movement.

              Much action with nothing achieved

              Verbosity with no point made

              19 It is not how old but how wise.

                Age is not necessarily the decider of wisdom

                20 A big penis does not necessarily mean a big child

                A large equipment is not an assurance of a great result

                21 A man cannot beget a male child before his father.

                Nature has sequence

                Certain desires or demands are naturally impossible to achieve

                22 An owl hoots in the backyard in the night and in the morning the sick child dies – –

                Events, situations, and circumstances have causes, either remotely or immediate

                The careless threat you made has occurred, so you are guilty

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