The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (165 page)

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Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

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o
ó
, a matter common to most men receives least attention.
1611
Dict.
French & English
s.v. Ouvrage,
Euerie bodies worke is no bodies worke.
1655
Compleat Angler
(ed.2) I.ii.
A wise friend of mine did usually say, That which is every bodies businesse, is no bodies businesse.
1725
(
title
)
Every-Body's Business, is No-Body's Business;.. exemplified in the pride of our Woman-Servants.
1834
Parochial Sermons
I. xix.
It is commonly said, that what is every one's business is practically no one's.
1914
Misalliance
10
‘The danger of public business is that it never ends’.. ‘What I say is that everybody's business is nobody's business.’
1981
Longest Pleasure
V.
It's unfair to try to make points by misquoting. What you should have said is ‘everybody's business is nobody's business’, and that doesn't fit our present case at all.
busybodies
EVERYTHING has an end
Cf. mid 14th-cent. Fr.
mais il n'est chose qui ne fine
,
ne qui ne viengne à son termine
, but there is nothing which doesn't end, which doesn't come to its conclusion.
c
1385
Troilus & Criseyde
III. 615
At the laste, as every thyng hath ende, She took hire leve.
1616
Crossing of Proverbs
A6
‘Euery thing hath an end’ .. ‘Not so, a Ring hath none.’
1841
Barnaby Rudge
XX.
Everything has an end. Even young ladies in love cannot read their letters for ever.
1980
Reflex
viii.
Can't go on for ever, more's the pity. Everything ends, doesn't it.
finality

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