Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is proverbs 163. The proverb today is " time and tide wait

  • for no man. Okay. Let's look at the note here. You may also possibly hear this

  • proverb as time and tide stay for no man or you may hear it as time and tide

  • tarry for no man. All right. A little bit of an old use. Tarry means to stay longer

  • or dawdle or kind of waste too much time. Okay. Let's continue. This proverb is

  • often used as a warning that time will not wait for you. You only have so much

  • time to make decisions and get important things done. If you wait too long or

  • procrastinate opportunities may be lost. It could also be used to suggest that

  • human events and behavior cannot stop time or cannot change time. Okay. Let's

  • continue. The earliest known sighting comes from

  • around twelve hundred and twenty five. And I think Chaucer then used it in the

  • 1300s too, but they say that the time and tide, the original ... the original quote

  • time and tide , the original tide was not actually for the sea tide, the original

  • tide had to do with time. So let's go over this. At that time, the word tide also

  • meant time as like in a season. Like nowadays we ... around Christmas we always

  • hear the word "Yuletide. " You know, I always wondered Yuletide ? Where did that come

  • from ? But the tide in Yuletide actually refers to time or like a season. Like the

  • Christmas season. Okay. So as in a season or special period. The term , Yuletide.

  • Good tidings, we often say that. That's also in a Christmas song you know , like you

  • know , wishing somebody good times. Tides were also used in the days of

  • sundials. You know, the early days like you know, around ten hundred, eleven

  • hundred , twelve hundred around this time. Yeah. And each was considered to be three

  • hours. I think originally when they using time back then, because they didn't

  • have watches yet. And of course no electricity. So they were using sundials

  • and I think they also paid attention to the tide coming in and out, in a way of

  • judging time too. So there is a little bit of a connection there. They were also

  • used for days. They were considered to be three hours. So a tide was was three

  • hours and the working day was supposedly broken into four tides. So that's why we

  • had ... there used to be words like even tide, even, even tied meaning like the evening

  • tide or the noontide you know, around twelve o'clock.

  • Something like that. So it really did relate to to time. At that time , but some later

  • think this use could also be related to to tides in a way, due to another story.

  • From the story of King Canute. He lived from 995 to 1035 ad and he was the king

  • of what is our modern-day England Denmark and Norway. That's kind of

  • interesting. According to the story, the king tried to teach his subjects

  • that even a king has limited power. You know and he did this actually by, by

  • commanding the sea and the tides to stop. So he knew the sea tides will not listen

  • to him, but this was his way of teaching them that you know even a king only has

  • so much power. So he wasn't doing , doing in an arrogant way, he was doing it in a way

  • to actually teach them. Okay. Good. All right. Well but anyway. So this is ... this

  • is some of the origins of where it comes from. But you know, either way it really

  • means it's always used as a warning that you know, time is limited. You , you have to

  • act. You have to make up your decision and do things. All right. So let's look at

  • a couple of examples here. You need to decide if you are going to do this or

  • not. Don't wait too long. Time and tide wait

  • for no man. Okay. That's one way we might use it. Or the second one here. We always believe

  • in addressing issues right away. Time and tide waits for no man.

  • Okay. Anyway this is the way we might use it . I hope you got it. I hope it was clear, Thank

  • you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is proverbs 163. The proverb today is " time and tide wait

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it