What Does The Pot Calling The Kettle Black Mean

The phrase pot calling the kettle black is an idiom used to accuse another speaker of hypocrisy in that the speaker disparages the subject for a fault or negative behavior that could equally be.

It means that someone is criticizing another person for a fault they have even though the criticizer is also guilty of doing the same thing. The idiom is glossed in the original sources as being used by a person who is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another and is thus an example of psychological projection 1 or hypocrisy. Dan went over to his brother s house and noticed how messy it was. The pot calling the kettle black meaning.

Something you say that means people should not criticize someone else for a fault that they have. Pot calling the kettle black noun a situation in which somebody comments on or accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares. Something you say that means people should not criticize someone else for a fault that they have. The pot calling the kettle black definition.

This phrase originates in cervantes don quixote or at least in thomas shelton s 1620 translation cervantes saavedra s history of don quixote. Additionally the original saying was more like the pot calling the kettle black arsed meaning that they would both have black bottoms from sitting in the flame all day. The expression the pot calling the kettle black is an idiomatic phrase that people sometimes use to point out hypocrisy. The pot calling the kettle black if you talk about the pot calling the kettle black you mean that a person who has accused someone of having a fault has the same fault themselves.

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What s the origin of the phrase the pot calling the kettle black. The pot calling the kettle black is a response often given when someone criticises another for a fault they also have themselves. His accusations must have sounded like the pot calling the kettle black. In other words someone is accusing an accuser of being guilty of the exact same thing that the accuser is accusing.

People often vary this expression. The pot calling the kettle black is a proverbial idiom that may be of spanish origin of which english versions began to appear in the first half of the 17th century.