Speak of the Devil! There he is now! Come over here! A: "I saw Fred the other day - He is still as argumentative as ever. PaulQ said:. So if I'm gossiping about someone, and that guy suddenlly walks by. In that case, "speaking of the devil" , not "speak of the devil", would be what I say to the listener. Is this correct? We would almost never say "Speaking of the devil" in American English.
I read the reply before you edited it, and obviously I misunderstood your first reply. I believe you hold the same opinion as PaulQ does? Chasint Senior Member English - England. In BE, it is quite different He said that "speaking of the devil" is commonly used in British English. It's rarely used in American English. We say "Speak of the devil! We wouldn't use Paul's example of "Speaking of the devil".
Chasint said:. I am British and I have never, ever heard anyone say "speaking of the devil". The only time that I would expect to hear it would be if someone was actually talking about Satan himself. I have only heard "speak of the devil".
The same goes for me. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Why is the expression " Speak of the devil " and not " Speaking of the devil "? For example, if you're talking about something, and that subject made you remember something else, you would say something like:. The proper use of the phrase "speak of the devil" is not in the context of remembering something or one thing reminding you of something else.
That kind of context is where you might say "speaking of groceries" as in your example. The proper use of "speak of the devil" is when you are speaking about someone - usually having something bad to say or some kind of gossip when that person suddenly comes into earshot. This is appropriate insofar as "speak of the devil" is short for "speak of the devil and he will appear" as was pointed out by Jeff.
It can also be used ironically in a situation where a person joins you in mid conversation, even if this person was not the subject of the conversation. It is an often good-natured jibe on the premise that you may have been gossiping about the person or that you are comparing them to the devil.
In this case, "Speak of the devil Note that "do something" is an infinitive in the "[Do something] and [something will happen]". A similar construction replaces "and" with "or" to mean "if you don't do something, something will happen":. Note that "Speaking of groceries, I have to go to the supermarket in an hour. So in essence, the idiom means that speaking of e. Language meaning changes over time so quoting years back or more is not all that useful although you could win on Jeopardy.
It's used so casually now that it has no real meaning other than that. It's similar to people saying "How yah doing" as there is no point of putting a question mark after it. That literally means "hi" now and you don't expect someone to actually answer.
As a side note It's a hodgepodge of languages at this point. Only a small fraction of society actually remembers the rules and those are usually copy writers and patent lawyers. It also depends on where you are in the world as grammar is so subjective. Clearly, nothing sinister is implied by this and it is just a jokey way of referring to the person's appearance. In fact, many people using the phrase might not be aware that, prior to the 20th century, the term wasn't meant lightheartedly at all.
The full form goes like this - "speak of the Devil and he will appear". The phrase originated in England, where it was, and still is, more often given as 'talk of the Devil'.
The phrase is old and appears in various Latin and Old English texts from the 16th century. The Italian writer Giovanni Torriano has the first recorded version in contemporary English, in Piazza Universale , Also, in 'Cataplus, a mock Poem', - re-printed in Hazlitt's Proverbs.
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