Beggars can't be choosers In english explanation

The meaning, explanation, definition and origin of the idiom/phrase "beggars can't be choosers", English Idiom Dictionary ( also found in Vietnamese )

Helen Nguyen

2020-12-19 11:12

Meaning of Beggars can't be choosers

Synonyms:

Don't Look a Gift Horse In The Mouth

Beggars can't be choosers proverbial phrase spoken language

Said when you have no choice but which is offered to you because you don't have money or power to choose another.

I don't want to work in another country but what can I do now. Beggars can't be choosers.

I'm not interested in this dress much, but it's cheaper than others and I don't have much money right now. You know beggars can’t be choosers.

I would prefer a car of my own to a motorbike, but you know beggars can’t be choosers.

Origin of Beggars can't be choosers

ggbfdvvfbv — *This proverbial phrase first appeared in the 1562 version of 'Proverbs' (Picture source:* printerest.com)

This proverbial phrase has much in common with 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' both in meaning and by virtue of having been first recorded in print by John Heywood. Both phrases were coined well before any form of organised state support for the poor and express the widely held medieval opinion that if you asked for and received a gift you should be grateful for it. The 'gift horse' proverb was recorded first, in Heywood's 1546 version of A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue.

'Beggars should not be choosers' didn't appear until the 1562 version of 'Proverbs'.

"Beggers should be no choosers, but yet they will:
Who can bryng a begger from choyse to begge still?"

The proverb is more commonly expressed these days as 'beggars can't be choosers'. This leads to an ambiguity in meaning between 'beggars are unable to be choosers' and 'beggars ought not to be choosers'. Of course, the latter is the original meaning.

The Origin Cited: phrases.org.uk .