Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A (often fatuous) proverb attributed to speaker in a situation

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the character name Sam Weller in Dickens' The Pickwick Papers (1836) +‎ -ism.

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Examples

  • He was a humorist, not without boyish delight in a good Sam-Wellerism, and so could be amused with the

    The Life of John Ruskin Collingwood, W G 1911

  • He was a humorist, not without boyish delight in a good Sam-Wellerism, and so could be amused with the

    The Life of John Ruskin 1893

  • My father's favorite Wellerism is "'We'll have to rehearse that,' said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car."

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day 2010

  • My father's favorite Wellerism is "'We'll have to rehearse that,' said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car."

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day 2010

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