gutta cavat lapidem
Appearance
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, “the water drop bores through the rock”. Perhaps a loose calque of Ancient Greek πέτρην κοιλαίνει ῥανὶς ὕδατος ἐνδελεχείῃ (pétrēn koilaínei rhanìs húdatos endelekheíēi), a verse by fifth-century BCE poet Choerilus of Samos.
Though the exact quoted words are first found in Ovid, the idea appears twice in Lucretius already:
c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 4.1286–1287:
- nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentis / umoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa?
- Don't you see, besides, how drops of water falling down against the stones at last bore through the stones?
Proverb
[edit]- (idiomatic) little strokes fell great oaks, slow and steady wins the race
- 12–13 BCE, Ovid, Letters from the Black Sea 4.10.5:
- gutta cavat lapidem, consumitur anulus usu
- the drop bores the rock, the ring is worn out by use
- gutta cavat lapidem, consumitur anulus usu
Descendants
[edit]- → German: steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein (calque)
- → Polish: kropla drąży skałę (calque)
- → Russian: ка́пля ка́мень то́чит (káplja kámenʹ tóčit) (calque)
References
[edit]- gutta cavat lapidem in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Further reading
[edit]- gutta cavat lapidem on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia it