Many a little makes a mickle. Savvy?

[Autolycus]

One of the unexpected pleasures of studying a foreign language is foraging up new phrases in one's main language to squirrel away for future use. While studying this idiom in Japanese, 塵も積もれば山となる　（Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru), I found the expression:

"Many a little makes a mickle."

I was immediately tickled pink by this phrase. It's a bit twee, but in a charmingly fun way. Unfortunately, I had no idea what it meant. I looked it here and found out it means "Many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount." Neat.

As an aside note, if I had verified my understanding of the Japanese kanji first, I could have easily figured that out on my own. Knowing kanji is like having an extensive knowledge of word roots in English, in that even if one doesn't know a particular word, one can often get the general meaning. The more I study kanji, the more I'm actually beginning to like them. Especially the funky-looking ones like 甕 or the interesting ones like 襲う. But I digress dangerously....

In conclusion, I was wondering how many people knew this phrase. I wasn't surprised to find it was UK-centric, but apparently it has passed out of usage largely on that side of the pond as well. What a shame! This is such a fun phrase.

Many a little makes a mickle!
Many a little makes a mickle!
Many a little makes a mickle!

[thelurkinghorror]

Strč prst skrz krk.

[araminty]

I've heard it as "many a mickle makes a muckle."

[njtt]

Originally Posted by araminty

I've heard it as "many a mickle makes a muckle."

Yes, that is what the expression is; also one does not "get" the cut of someone's jib, one likes or dislikes it.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by araminty

I've heard it as "many a mickle makes a muckle."

Me too.

[Aspidistra]

I know "mickle" from this mediaeval Christmas carol. Not sure if any standard English speaker has used it in the last couple of centuries though.

[Trinopus]

Originally Posted by araminty

I've heard it as "many a mickle makes a muckle."

Or even many a mickle maks a muckle.

I learned it from Flanders & Swann.

ETA: it appears in Hesiod, as "Put a little upon a little, and, in time, this will grow to be much."

[Lasciel]

Many mickle maks a muckle.

My granddad used to say it when he paid us cousins in dimes to pick up pinecones from his (giant-ass) yard so he could make (giant-ass) bonfires out of them. I knew what it meant, and always thought it was just some weird scots-irish saying.

[Senegoid]

Does anybody remember if Lewis Carroll parodied this phrase in one of his Alice books, which was later remarked upon by Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice?

I'm sure I remember reading some mention of this in The Annotated Alice, but I can't find anything on it now. Has someone else seen this?

[Peter Morris]

Originally Posted by araminty

I've heard it as "many a mickle makes a muckle."

Pop quiz, hotshots.

How many mickles are there in a muckle?

The answer may surprise you.

[Autolycus]

Oh, I know I know! I though as the OP it would be more fun to have somebody else post it.

[si_blakely]

Originally Posted by Lasciel

Many mickle maks a muckle.

So, where there's muckles, there's brass

Si

[Giles]

Originally Posted by si_blakely

So, where there's muckles, there's brass

Si

[Yorkshire Accent]Nay, lad: where there's muck there's brass.[/YA]

[Gyrate]

Mind t'whoosh.

[si_blakely]

Originally Posted by Gyrate

Mind t'whoosh.

He would have noticed t'were he on Ilkla Moor Baht 'at

among the many sins visited on me by my Yorkshire born mother, along with stilton cheese in a christmas mince pie

Si

[CalMeacham]

I don't recal where I first stumbled across mickle, but I recognized it when Tolkein used it in Michel Delving, a location in the Shire. Put into modern English, it means "Much Digging", and obviously refers to a place with many Hobbit holes.

[Colophon]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

I don't recal where I first stumbled across mickle, but I recognized it when Tolkein used it in Michel Delving, a location in the Shire. Put into modern English, it means "Much Digging", and obviously refers to a place with many Hobbit holes.

Or it could mean "Little Digging" - after all many a mickle (small amount) makes a muckle (large amount).

Confusingly, though, there seem to be two expressions. My dictionary gives two, completely opposite, meanings for the noun "mickle":

1: a great amount, esp in the proverb mony [sic] a little makes a mickle. 2: Scottish a small amount, esp in the proverb many a mickle maks [sic] a muckle

I've certainly only ever come across the second version, which implies a mickle is a small amount.

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by Colophon

Or it could mean "Little Digging" - after all many a mickle (small amount) makes a muckle (large amount).

Confusingly, though, there seem to be two expressions. My dictionary gives two, completely opposite, meanings for the noun "mickle":




I've certainly only ever come across the second version, which implies a mickle is a small amount.

Or it could mean "a great amount", as the dictionareies I've consulted show.


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mickle

[Dendarii Dame]

I read this as a proverb used on a War Stamp savings card in All of a Kind Family Uptown, by Sydney Taylor, which takes place in World War I. Another proverb on the card is "Great oaks from little acorns grow."

[eclectic wench]

Originally Posted by Dendarii Dame

I read this as a proverb used on a War Stamp savings card in All of a Kind Family Uptown, by Sydney Taylor, which takes place in World War I. Another proverb on the card is "Great oaks from little acorns grow."

That must be where I read it! I knew I'd read it somewhere when I was a little kid, but I couldn't work out where. I loved those books, though, so that could well be it.

Never heard the mickle/muckle version.

[RealityChuck]

From Flanders and Swann

[Trinopus]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

Does anybody remember if Lewis Carroll parodied this phrase in one of his Alice books, which was later remarked upon by Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice?

I'm sure I remember reading some mention of this in The Annotated Alice, but I can't find anything on it now. Has someone else seen this?

I can't think of anything in the Alice books... It's been a while since I've read Gardner, but I don't recall it there either. Maybe in Sylvie and Bruno? (If you think Alice's adventures were weird...)

[Giles]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

Does anybody remember if Lewis Carroll parodied this phrase in one of his Alice books, which was later remarked upon by Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice?

In chapter 9 of Alice in Wonderland, the Duchess says, "Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves." This is a parody of the English proverb, "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," which makes rather more sense, and also has more or less the same meaning as the mickle/muckle proverb.

[Bam Boo Gut]

I know it as "every mickle makes a muckle" but I'm from down south.

[Eurograff]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

I don't recal where I first stumbled across mickle, but I recognized it when Tolkein used it in Michel Delving, a location in the Shire. Put into modern English, it means "Much Digging", and obviously refers to a place with many Hobbit holes.

Originally Posted by Colophon

Or it could mean "Little Digging" - after all many a mickle (small amount) makes a muckle (large amount).

Confusingly, though, there seem to be two expressions. My dictionary gives two, completely opposite, meanings for the noun "mickle":




I've certainly only ever come across the second version, which implies a mickle is a small amount.

In Tolkien's usage the word michel/micel/mickel/mickle certainly refers to large amounts. He was well aware of its origins. The (Old) English word mickle comes from a common Germanic root, which also leads to the word "much" (and maybe "mighty" too) and is present in the German name Mecklenburg and in the Viking name for Constantinople, Miklagard, which both mean "the great city". This word form is also a cognate to other Indo-European words for big, such as Greek mega, Latin magna or Sanskrit maha. That in some English dialects this word has come to mean small amounts is probably just a result of some confusion concerning the actual meaning of an old and rarely used word.

[Autolycus]

And now you know the rest of the story.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

Fearful were the chicken dwarves, yet mickle crafty too

[Regallag_The_Axe]

So that's what the ghost pirate was talking about.

[Colophon]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Or it could mean "a great amount", as the dictionareies I've consulted show.


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mickle

Er, yes - that's what I said. There are two, completely opposite, definitions in my dictionary. A mickle is either a large amount or a small amount, and correspondingly the expression is either "many a little makes a mickle" or "many a mickle makes a muckle". In the latter case, a muckle is defined as a large amount, even though it comes from the same root!

Growing up I had only ever heard the second expression, so it seems wrong to me that a mickle is a lot, even though by all accounts that is the correct one.

"Mickle" also appears in my same dictionary as an adjective or adverb, in both cases only in the "large or abundant" sense.

[Lasciel]

Actually, it can be made to work:

Many a little makes a mickle.
Many little bits makes a lot.

Many a mickle maks a muckle.
Many lots makes a truckload.