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Proverbial vs Proverbiality - What's the difference?

proverbial | proverbiality |

As nouns the difference between proverbial and proverbiality

is that proverbial is (euphemistic) used to replace a word that might be considered unacceptable in a particular situation, when using a well-known phrase while proverbiality is the state or characteristic of being proverbial.

As an adjective proverbial

is of, resembling, or expressed as a proverb, , fable, or fairy tale.

proverbial

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, resembling, or expressed as a proverb, , fable, or fairy tale.
  • * 1947 , ( transcript):
    • Doris: You're making me feel like the proverbial stepmother.
  • Widely known; famous; stereotypical.
    • I grew up in a prefab house on Main Street in 1950s suburbia, the second and last child of a proverbial nuclear family.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (euphemistic) Used to replace a word that might be considered unacceptable in a particular situation, when using a well-known phrase.
    • I think we should be prepared in case the proverbial hits the fan.
  • (euphemistic) The groin or the testicles.

    • proverbiality

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state or characteristic of being proverbial.
  • * 1874 , "English vers de société''," ''The Living Age , vol. 122, no. 1580, p. 718:
    • For such a quatrain and couplet as the following it is scarcely hazardous to predict proverbiality :—
  • *::They eat and drink and scheme and plod
  • *:::And go to church on Sunday;
  • *::And many are afraid of God
  • *:::And more of Mrs. Grundy.
  • *:: . . .
  • *::The Cockney met in Middlesex or Surrey
  • *::Is often cold and always in a hurry.
  • * 1968 , Shirley L. Arora, "Spanish Proverbial Exaggerations from California," Western Folklore , vol. 27, no. 4, p. 232:
    • The degree of proverbiality , or currency in oral tradition, attained by these exaggerations is difficult to assess.
  • * 2005', Rose Marie Beck, "Texts on Textiles: '''Proverbiality as Characteristic of Equivocal Communication at the East African Coast (Swahili)," ''Journal of African Cultural Studies , vol. 17, no. 2, p. 156:
    • Because other aspects are also seen as contributing to proverbiality —equivocation, authoritativeness, and negotiation of power relations—a text may be proverbial to various degrees.

    References

    *Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.