different strokes for different folks
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]1950s US origin, popularized by Muhammad Ali (1966) and later the song "Everyday People" by Sly Stone (1968).[1][2]
Proverb
[edit]different strokes for different folks
- Different people like different things; there's no accounting for taste.
- 1968, “Everyday People”, in Stand!, performed by Sly and the Family Stone:
- There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one / That won't accept the red one, that won't accept the white one / Different strokes for different folks
Translations
[edit]there's no accounting for taste — see there's no accounting for taste
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Anand Prahlad, editor (2006), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, →ISBN, page 324: “This quintessential American proverb was coined among urban blacks in the 1950s.”
- ^ Gary Martin (1997–) “Different strokes for different folks”, in The Phrase Finder.