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(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
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(ordered by seriousness) ESL Vocabulary Lists Parts of Speech Lists A-Z Idioms and Proverbs Tests and Games Top Tip Install a grammar checker
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Haste Makes Waste (Origin)
What Is the Origin of the Saying "Haste Makes Waste"?
The term "haste makes waste" means doing things quickly gives poor results.
Udall describes "Apophthegmes" as a book "in Latine by the ryght famous clerke Maister Erasmus of Roterodame...translated into Englyshe by Nicolas Vdall."
The proverb appears as "Haste maketh waste."
The proverb also appears in 1546 in John Heywood's glossary "A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue":
- Som thyngs that prouoke yong men to wed in haste
Show after weddyng that haste maketh waste.
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