Pot calling the kettle black

[browneyedgir]

Where does this phrase come from? Serious answers only please x

[Quizmonster]

The earliest recorded use of the phrase is in a dictionary of slang published in 1700. In one book of proverbs and sayings, it is recorded as "a 17th century proverb". If it was already a proverb over 300 years ago, the chances of ever finding an original creator are nil.

[jonpmay]

the phrase comes from cervantes' Don Quixote.
"You are like what is said that the frying-pan said to the kettle, 'Avant, black-browes'."

The first person who is recorded as using the phrase in English was William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in his Some fruits of solitude, 1693:

"For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality... is for the Pot to call the Kettle black."

[andy-hughes]

The meaning of the phrase is to point out a fault in someone else which you have yourself, and appear not to acknowledge.

It originates from old fashioned cooking done in open fires. Both pot and kettle would sit in the fire regulalry to heat, andboth would develop scorching around the bottom, so both would be black around the base. Hence, the notion of one referring to the other as 'black' as a criticism is invalid, because the caller is the same, for the same reson.

[manxbiker]

POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK - The "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris has more detail about this phrase than other reference books: "There are two slightly varying interpretations of this phrase, which is used figuratively to apply to persons. One theory is that such action is ridiculous because they are both black, presumably from standing for years on a wood-burning stove or in a fireplace. (Note from ESC: iron pots and kettles are already black when new.) So the pot as well as the kettle is black (evil) and neither one is better than the other. This supports the explanation of the phrase as given in 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable': 'Said of one accusing another of faults similar to those committed by himself.' The other theory is that the pot was black but the kettle polished copper and the pot, seeing its own blackness reflected in the shiny surface of the kettle, maintained that the kettle, not it, was actually black. In any event, it seems that the best, if slangy, retort by the kettle may have been: 'Look who's talking!' Usually the source of the phrase is given as Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' and simply as 'The pot calls the kettle black,' but another version of Don Quixote comes out as: 'Said the pot to the kettle, get away black-face!' Henry Fielding, eighteenth century writer, reverses the roles in 'Covent Garden Tragedy': 'Dares thus the kettle to rebuke our sin!/Dares thus the kettle say the pot is black!' Even Shakespeare used the idea in 'Troilus and Cressida': 'The raven chides blackness.'"

[VS Prasad]

It means don't criticise someone for imperfections because you, yourself, are also imperfect in many ways.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/18/me ssages/512.html

A situation in which somebody comments on or accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pot_calling_the_ kettle_black

http://www.bartleby.com/59/4/potcallingth.html

The phrase "Pot calling the kettle black" is an idiom, used to accuse another speaker of hypocrisy, in that the speaker disparages the subject in a way that could equally be applied to him or her. The phrase "It takes one to know one" has a similar meaning.

Chinese philosopher Mencius relates a similar story about a soldier laughing at another soldier retreating 100 steps, while retreating 50 steps himself.

There's a similar idiom in Turkish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_t he_kettle_black

Being hypocritical

http://www.abbreviations.com/bs.asp?st=Pot+cal ling+the+kettle+black

"The Democrat party runs a real risk here of being the pot that calls the kettle black.� - Tracey Schmitt