Familiarity breeds contempt

Origin of: Familiarity breeds contempt

Familiarity breeds contempt

A very old proverb, the sense of which first appears in Aesop’s Fables, The Fox and the Lion, c. 550 BC. The OED maintains the exact construction in English is first attested from the 16th century. Mark Twain (1835-1910) gave it new life when he wrote, “Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.”