Talk:Straw that broke the camel's back

from VfD: Dictdef. Securiger 13:56, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Keep [[User:Rex071404|Rex071404 ]] 15:40, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Delete. Wiktionary. —Rory ☺ 15:42, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
Keep. Mark Richards 16:35, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Redirect to List of idioms in the English language. Since it's difficult to measure notability of phrases like this, they should all be kept in the one article. Darksun 17:08, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Keep this. Intrigue 19:42, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Delete and redirect to List of idioms in the English language. [[User:Gamaliel|Gamaliel File:Watchmensmiley20.gif]] 20:06, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Delete altogether, WP is not a book of general sayings and idioms. What's next, "One for the money, two for the show?" or "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush," ad nauseum.
Keep. Notable, notable, notable. — El Chico! ^Talk 20:10, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Transwiki to Wiktionary. This is a dicdef (a discussion of the meaning and usage of a word or phrase). I see no possibility of expansion. Rossami 20:57, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Transwiki and Redirect to List of idioms in the English language. It's notable, but suited for a dictionary definition rather than an encylopaedia article. -- WOT 21:02, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Comment: it seems like cases like these would be simpler if Wikipedia and Wiktionary were more integrated. -- WOT 21:03, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Keep. Rhobite 03:08, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
Redirect to List of idioms in the English language, where it is listed and has been defined. -- Antaeus Feldspar 20:30, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Delete. Dictdef. — Gwalla | Talk 20:50, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Redirect to List of idioms in the English language. --Saforrest 21:19, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
Transwiki to Wiktionary. It's a dictionary definition. -- J3ff 22:17, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Redirect to List of idioms in the English language. Anything to be added should be added to that article, and not by making a new one. The redirect will take care of users trying to find the particular phrase. --avnative 19:40, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
Keep. Guan aco 21:13, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Delete put in idioms section. HRpufnstuf 00:10, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

end moved discussion

Mm...

Add the bit about Dickens to the List of Idioms page and delete this...

2007-02-9 Automated pywikipediabot message

This page has been transwikied to Wiktionary.
The article has content that is useful at Wiktionary. Therefore the article can be found at either here or here (logs 1 logs 2.)
Note: This means that the article has been copied to the Wiktionary Transwiki namespace for evaluation and formatting. It does not mean that the article is in the Wiktionary main namespace, or that it has been removed from Wikipedia's. Furthermore, the Wiktionarians might delete the article from Wiktionary if they do not find it to be appropriate for the Wiktionary.
Removing this tag will usually trigger CopyToWiktionaryBot to re-transwiki the entry. This article should have been removed from Category:Copy to Wiktionary and should not be re-added there.

--CopyToWiktionaryBot 09:01, 9 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Earliest known appearance in English

In 1655, Archbishop John Bramhall wrote: It is the last feather that breaks the horse's back, which is the identical concept albeit using slightly different words. [1]. -- JackofOz (talk) 08:23, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

how much straw do you need to break a camel's back?

I wouldn't mind a bit of scientific fact about camels and volume to weight ratio and back density. Anyone know anything about the literalisms behind this idiom? PyroGamer (talk) 22:43, 19 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think about 103,847 straws worth of weight would do. Remember seeing it in a reddit forum somewhere. Don't take my word though, I would recommend checking for yourself on my accuracy. Carnival200 (talk) 17:09, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Arabic, Dickens, Tamil, etc.

What evidence do we have that this proverb is a calque from the Arabic? Simply because a camel is mentioned? But our earliest English source talks of a "horse", and the "last drop" version comes from about the same time. The source given, Exploring Idioms, is written for 4-8th grade, and shows no evidence of scholarly research.

Why was the Dickens use of this quote so prominent? I have moved it to a chronological list of occurrences.

The Tamil proverb is translated as "With peacock feathers light, you load the wain; / Yet, heaped too high, the axle snaps in twain." which doesn't mean the same thing at all -- it is saying that it doesn't matter if the weight of individual items is small if you load too many of them; it isn't talking about the "last drop" or the "last straw". I am removing it.

For that matter, should WP really be listing dozens of translations of a proverb? --Macrakis (talk) 04:51, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]