{"id":23294,"date":"2024-03-01T16:47:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T16:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23294"},"modified":"2024-03-01T16:47:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T16:47:57","slug":"overflowing-vases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23294","title":{"rendered":"Overflowing Vases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The French equivalent of the saying \u201cthe straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u201d or \u201cthe last \/ final straw\u201d is <strong>la goutte d\u2019eau qui fait d\u00e9border le vase<\/strong> (the drop of water that makes the vase overflow). Which makes as much a sense, and no animals are harmed.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lucasnoop\/9460530428\/in\/photolist-o8hFUr-fpZG6A-ndkYds-5uQsEE\/\" title=\"La goutte d&#x27;eau qui fait d\u00e9border le vase. it&#x27;s the straw that breaks the camel&#x27;s back\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3773\/9460530428_96071ed615_w.jpg\" width=\"265\" height=\"400\" alt=\"La goutte d&#x27;eau qui fait d\u00e9border le vase. it&#x27;s the straw that breaks the camel&#x27;s back\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 0 15px;\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>These sayings mean \u201cThe final additional small burden that makes the entirety of one&#8217;s difficulties unbearable.\u201d The earliest known version in English appears in a debate between Thomas Hobbes and John Bramhall in 1677: \u2018the last Feather may be said to break a Horses Back\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>It is thought to be based on the Arabic proverb: <span dir=\"rtl\">\u0627\u064e\u0644\u0652\u0642\u064e\u0634\u064e\u0651\u0629 \u0627\u064e\u0644\u064e\u0651\u062a\u0650\u064a \u0642\u064e\u0635\u064e\u0645\u064e\u062a \u0638\u064e\u0647\u0652\u0631 \u0627\u064e\u0644\u0652\u0628\u0650\u0639\u0650\u064a\u0631\u2069<\/span>  (al-qa\u0161\u0161a allat\u012b qa\u1e63amat \u1e93ahr al-bi\u0295\u012br), or \u201cThe straw that broke the camel&#8217;s back\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Other versions in English include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the last straw that overloads the camel (1799)<\/li>\n<li>It was the last ounce that broke the back of the camel (1832)<\/li>\n<li>The last straw will break the camel&#8217;s back (1836)<\/li>\n<li>As the last straw breaks the laden camel&#8217;s back (1848)<\/li>\n<li>This final feather broke the camel&#8217;s back (1876)<\/li>\n<li>The straw that broke the donkey&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The last peppercorn breaks the camel&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The melon that broke the monkey&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The feather that broke the camel&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The straw that broke the horse&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The hair that broke the camel&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<li>The last ounce broke the camel&#8217;s back<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is also &#8220;the last drop makes the cup run over&#8221;, and variations on that theme in English.<\/p>\n<p>Versions in quite a few other languages also refer to overflowing cups or other vessels, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>German<\/strong>: der Tropfen, der das Fass zum \u00dcberlaufen bringt.<br \/><em>the drop that makes the barrel overflow<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Italian<\/strong>: la goccia che fa traboccare il vaso<br \/><em>the drop of water that makes the glass overflow<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Russian<\/strong>: \u043a\u0430\u0301\u043f\u043b\u044f, \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043f\u043e\u0301\u043b\u043d\u0438\u0432\u0448\u0430\u044f \u0447\u0430\u0301\u0448\u0443 (k\u00e1plja, perep\u00f3lniv\u0161aja \u010d\u00e1\u0161u)<br \/><em>the drop that made the bowl overflow<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Turkish<\/strong>: barda\u011f\u0131 ta\u015f\u0131ran son damla<br \/><em>the last drop that makes the glass overflow<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are, however, quite different versions in some languages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scottish Gaelic<\/strong>: th\u00e9id capall don choille ach brisidh aon uallach a chridhe<br \/><em>the colt will go to the forest, but one burden will break his heart<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Welsh<\/strong>: pennog gyda phwn dyrr asgwrn cefn ceffyl<br \/><em>adding a herring to a load break\u2019s a horse\u2019s backbone<\/em> (not sure of this translation)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are there interesting equivalents of this saying in other languages?<\/p>\n<p>Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/the_straw_that_broke_the_camel%27s_back#English\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/the_straw_that_broke_the_camel%27s_back#English<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Straw_that_broke_the_camel%27s_back\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Straw_that_broke_the_camel%27s_back<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/geiriaduracademi.org\/\">https:\/\/geiriaduracademi.org\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phrases.org.uk\/meanings\/the-last-straw.html\">https:\/\/www.phrases.org.uk\/meanings\/the-last-straw.html<\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited2-468x60.gif\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French equivalent of the saying \u201cthe straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u201d or \u201cthe last \/ final straw\u201d is la goutte d\u2019eau qui fait d\u00e9border le vase (the drop of water that makes the vase overflow). Which makes as much a sense, and no animals are harmed. These sayings mean \u201cThe final additional small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,104,107,111,116,128,10,52,56,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arabic","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-german","category-italian","category-language","category-russian","category-scottish-gaelic","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23294"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23301,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294\/revisions\/23301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}