Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard alarms.
Meaning and origin
This proverb means that once someone has experienced a negative or harmful situation, they become overly cautious and fearful of even harmless things that remind them of that experience.
The origin of this proverb is unclear, but it is believed to have originated in England or the United States. It may have originated from observations of human behavior and reactions to past traumatic events. The comparison of a harmless lizard (or rope) to a dangerous serpent highlights the idea of exaggerated fear and caution.
Proverbs on a similar topic
- Keep your eyes open.
- Look before you leap.
- Let sleeping dogs lie.
- Walls have ears.
- Look after number one.
- Caution is the parent of safety.
- The burnt child dreads the fire.
- Fire and water are good servants, but bad masters.
- The master's eye makes the horse fat.
- Measure twice, cut but once.
- Scald not your lips in another man's pottage.
- One eye of the master sees more than ten of the servants.
- When the fox preaches, then beware your geese.
- Take heed of an ox before, of a horse behind, of a monk on all sides.
- Put not the hand between the bark and the tree.
- The fox preys farthest from his home.
- Birds once snared fear all bushes.