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Why does the pot call the kettle black then the pot is black not the kettle should it not be the other way around?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
The Pot Calling The Kettle Black = to criticize someone else for something that could equally well apply to oneself. (suggests a certain blindness to one's own characteristics)
Example: "Ah, look who finally decided to join us: Mr. Tardy, himself."
Response: "Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black! You're always the last one to show up to everything!" (Takes one to know one!)
Background: In medieval kitchens, "the pot" (for cooking food) and "the kettle" (for boiling water) were made from heavy materials like cast iron to withstand the heat from an open fire. The cast iron would become black with use, collecting oil, food residue, and soot from the flames. The pot sees the blackness on the kettle and points it out, while not noticing that same blackness on itself. -- Phrase originates in a 1620 translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote
Just to clarify: The order of the phrase is actually irrelevant. Whether it is the pot calling the kettle black or vice versa, the effect is the same. The point is that while both are flawed (ie black), one cannot see its own flaws.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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What does pot and kettle mean?
That is someone criticizing another for an action that he himself has done or for a characteristic that he himself shares. It refers a cooking container criticizing another cooking container for becoming blackened through use despite the first container being equally blackened.The phrase is used to point out somebody's hypocrisy.On old wood stoves the pot and kettle were usually blackened from soot, therefor if the Pot were to insult the Kettle by calling it black it would be insulting itself in the process since it was the same.Therefore when you accuse someone of doing something that you do yourself you are like the pot who calls the kettle blackThis idiom refers to a hypocrite or accusing someone of being hypocritical. If I am lying but call you a liar you could say, Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black. If you are overweight and yet tell me to watch what I eat, I could say, That's the pot calling the kettle black.example citation:"But how many conservatives who are targets of such slurs know these liberals are indulging in one of the greatest intellectual ruses in history? How many realize it's a matter of the red-faced pot calling the kettle black?"When someone accuses another of a fault like lying, sloth or greed this phrase is used to counter accuse. For example, if you were spying on your girlfriend's e-mails and she found out about it while she was spying on your e-mails her accusation that you didn't trust her could be countered with, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, since she also has trust issues. This comes from a period when pots and kettles were both made out of cast iron, so both the pot and the kettle were black.The kettle calling the pot black, both are black, so it refers to a person who is telling another person that they are doing something wrong when they are doing the same thing. for example a smoker telling another smoker that they shouldn't smoke. a thief calling someone else a thief. etcThe Pot and the Kettle are both black. Is often used by a person condemning other people for something they do themselves. So if a person (the pot) is accusing someone (the kettle) of doing something they actually do. They are both actually the same (black) therefore the pot has not right to condemn the kettle without actually condemning themselves.
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There are no differences in Muslim beliefs around the world .
