The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (406 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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There's NOWT so queer as folk
Nowt
is a dialect variant of ‘nought’; i.e. ‘nothing’.
1905
English Dialect Dict.
IV. 304
There's nowt sae queer as folk,
Old saying
.
1939
Letter
30 May in
Letters
(1979) 186
I trust you .. find plenty of interest in people & their doings. Really ‘there is nowt so funny as folk.’
1955
Miscellany-at-Law
I
. 72
There is the infinite charm and variety of human nature itself: ‘there's nowt so queer as folk.’
1979
Hooky & Villainous Chauffeur
viii.
There's nowt so queer as folk, people get up to all sorts of odd things.
idiosyncrasy
number
see
there is LUCK in odd numbers
; there is SAFETY in numbers.
O
When the OAK is before the ash, then you will only get a splash; when the ash is before the oak, then you may expect a soak
A traditional way of predicting whether the summer will be wet or dry on the basis of whether the oak or the ash is first to come into leaf in the spring.
1852
Notes & Queries
1st Ser. V. 581
When the oak comes out before the ash, there will be fine weather in harvest. I .. find it generally correct.
1911
Times Literary Supplement
4 Aug. 285
One of the commonest weather rhymes in most parts of England deals with the budding of the oak and the ash:—When the oak's before the ash Then you'll only get a splash, When the ash is before the oak Then you may expect a soak. But in North Germany the signs are exactly inverted, and also in Cornwall.
1987
Daily Telegraph
22 June 12
My farmer neighbour and myself have always been great believers in the saying: ‘Ash before oak, we'll get a soak Oak before ash, we'll only have a splash.’
weather lore

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