Other forms: adages
An adage is a short old saying that people take as true. The old adage, as the adage goes, a familiar adage.
It is nearly always introduced as the old adage, which is redundant since an adage is old by definition. It differs from a proverb only in feeling slightly more formal, and both are folk wisdom rather than anything tested.
1nounadageA short old saying that people take as true.
“There's an adage that says a watched pot never boils.”
adage is a saying.
Latin adagium means a saying, probably from ad plus a root meaning to say.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁eǵ-
Latin
adā̆gium
Middle French
adage
English, today
adage
Middle French adage, from Latin adā̆gium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA