I was watching a movie last weekend, when I picked up this cute little phrase. As a good language student, I ran to my dic only to find that its definition was not there. My next step was, of course, to google it. And there it was...
The movie I was watching was "The Blind Side", Sandra Bullock's latest movie. The situation was simple: All of the main characters were at a football match. They were on the audience, and together with them there was this man cheering for the other team, but he would only shout insults, obviously, to his opponents. So SJ, the younger son of the family, turned to him, he was ready to give the man a piece of his mind when his mother, Sandra Bullock, stopped him saying sticks and stones.
I looked it up, as I said, and this is what I found:
Sticks and stones is the beginning of a proverb which goes like this: "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." And the Free Dictionary by Farlex gives the following definitions:
1- "something that you say which means that people cannot hurt you with bad things they say or write about you Criticism has never bothered me. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and all that."
2- "Prov. You do not hurt me by calling me names. (A reply to someone who has called you names. Primarily used by children; sounds childish when used by adults.)"
I hope you find this interesting.
