etymology - Proper usage/origin of the generic phrase "[action phrase] does not a [noun] make"





Why is “xxxx doth not a yyyy make” considered valid English?



I occasionally come across a sentence formulated in a manner similar to the following:



Reading a book does not an expert make.



I realize the grammar is quite irregular (I'm no grammar expert, so I'll just call it Yoda-speak), but I've heard this structure used a number of times in the colloquial. My questions are:



  1. Is anyone else familiar with this sentence structure?

  2. What's the origin?

  3. How should I use it properly?



Answer



The archetypal phrase is "One swallow does not summer make".


This is a quote from Aristotle's Ethics, however I am having trouble finding the relevant translation.


The translation by W. D. Ross at classics.mit.edu goes:



For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.



At Project Gutenberg, the translation by J A Smith et al, goes:



for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.



... and I am unable to find a translation online (and we must be looking for one that's old enough to be in the public domain) that has the exact familiar English wording.


My guess is that the phrase was simplified in the retelling, long enough ago that modern word orders were not fixed in stone. The sentence would not look out of place in the King James Bible, for example, so we could expect that kind of age.


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