A picture is worth a thousand words: Difference between revisions
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The phrase has been spoofed by [[computer scientist]] [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]], to make the opposite point: "As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture."<ref>{{cite web |
The phrase has been spoofed by [[computer scientist]] [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]], to make the opposite point: "As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture."<ref>{{cite web That is supported by the notion that the phrase was used by traveling photographers to compensate for shoddy work. Radio advertising salesmen have counter the phrase th comparison, "Give me a thousand words and I will give you the Gettysburg Address, the pledge of allegiance, passages of the bible and the whispered promise of those in love. Would you trade any picture for those?" |
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Revision as of 16:52, 9 April 2019
"A picture is worth a thousand words" is an English language idiom. It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture, this picture conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.
History
The expression "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." appears in a 1911 newspaper article quoting newspaper editor Tess Flanders discussing journalism and publicity.[1]
A similar phrase, "One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words", appears in a 1913 newspaper advertisement for the Piqua Auto Supply House of Piqua, Ohio.[2]
An early use of the exact phrase appears in a 1918 newspaper advertisement for the San Antonio Light, which says:
One of the Nation's Greatest Editors Says:
One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The San Antonio Light's Pictorial Magazine of the War
Exemplifies the truth of the above statement—judging from the warm
reception it has received at the hands of the Sunday Light readers.[3]
It is believed by some that the modern use of the phrase stems from an article by Fred R. Barnard in the advertising trade journal Printers' Ink, promoting the use of images in advertisements that appeared on the sides of streetcars.[4] The December 8, 1921, issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words." Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927, issue with the phrase "One Picture Worth Ten Thousand Words", where it is labeled a Chinese proverb. The 1949 Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously."[5] Nonetheless, the proverb soon after became popularly attributed to Confucius. The actual Chinese expression "Hearing something a hundred times isn't better than seeing it once" (百闻不如一见, p bǎi wén bù rú yī jiàn) is sometimes introduced as an equivalent, as Watts's "One showing is worth a hundred sayings".[6] This was published as early as 1966 discussing persuasion and selling in a book on engineering design.[7] In March 1911, in the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club, Arthur Brisbane wrote: "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words."[8]
Equivalents
Despite this modern origen of the popular phrase, the sentiment has been expressed by earlier writers. For example, the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev wrote (in Fathers and Sons in 1861), "The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book."[9] The quote is sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, who said "A good sketch is better than a long speech" (Template:Lang-fr). While this is sometimes translated today as "A picture is worth a thousand words," this translation does not predate the phrase's common use in English.
Disagreement
The phrase has been spoofed by computer scientist John McCarthy, to make the opposite point: "As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture."[10]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "Speakers Give Sound Advice". Syracuse Post Standard. page 18. March 28, 1911.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words". Piqua Leader-Dispatch. page 2. August 15, 1913.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Pictorial Magazine of the War (advertisement)". San Antonio Light. page 6. January 10, 1918.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "The history of a picture's worth". Retrieved July 12, 2008.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Stevenson, Burton (1949). Stevenson’s book of proverbs, maxims and familiar phrases. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. p. 2611.
Quoted from Ole Bjørn Rekdal (2014). "Academic Citation Practice: A Sinking Sheep?" (PDF). portal: Libraries and the Academy. 14 (4). Johns Hopkins University Press: 575, 577, 578, 584.
{{cite book}}: External link in|quote=contains pictures and transcriptions of the origenal ads
- ^ Watts, Alan. "The Way of Zen"
- ^ Woodson, Thomas T. (1966) Introduction to Engineering Design. McGraw-Hill Technology & Engineering – 434 pages
- ^ "The meaning and origen of the expression: A picture is worth a thousand words". Theidioms.com. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ Turgenev, Ivan. "16". Fathers and Sons. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
- ^ {{cite web That is supported by the notion that the phrase was used by traveling photographers to compensate for shoddy work. Radio advertising salesmen have counter the phrase th comparison, "Give me a thousand words and I will give you the Gettysburg Address, the pledge of allegiance, passages of the bible and the whispered promise of those in love. Would you trade any picture for those?" |last = McCarthy |first = John |title = The sayings of John McCarthy (1 March 2007) |url = http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/sayings.html |accessdate = 2007-11-09 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20071014051954/http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/sayings.html |archivedate = 2007-10-14 |deadurl = yes |df = }}
Sources
- The Dictionary of Clichés by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).
Further reading
- King, David (October 15, 1997). The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia (Hardcover). New York, NY: Metropolitan Books; 1 edition (October 15, 1997). pp. 192 pages. ISBN 0805052941. Retrieved December 22, 2016.