Cunning
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| + | "Even a [[potato]] in a dark [[cellar]] has a certain low [[cunning]] about him which serves him in excellent stead. He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to get it. He sees the [[light]] coming from the cellar window and sends his shoots crawling straight thereto: they will crawl along the floor and up the wall and out at the cellar window; if there be a little earth anywhere on the journey he will find it and use it for his own ends. What deliberation he may exercise in the matter of his roots when he is planted in the earth is a thing unknown to us, but we can imagine him saying, 'I will have a [[tuber]] here and a tuber there, and I will suck whatsoever advantage I can from all my surroundings. This neighbour I will overshadow, and that I will undermine; and what I can do shall be the limit of what I will do. He that is stronger and better placed than I shall overcome me, and him that is weaker I will overcome.'" --''[[Erewhon]]'' (1872) by Samuel Butler | ||
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| # [[sly|Sly]]; [[crafty]]; [[clever]] in [[surreptitious]] behaviour. | # [[sly|Sly]]; [[crafty]]; [[clever]] in [[surreptitious]] behaviour. | ||
Revision as of 12:00, 9 January 2020
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"Even a potato in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning about him which serves him in excellent stead. He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to get it. He sees the light coming from the cellar window and sends his shoots crawling straight thereto: they will crawl along the floor and up the wall and out at the cellar window; if there be a little earth anywhere on the journey he will find it and use it for his own ends. What deliberation he may exercise in the matter of his roots when he is planted in the earth is a thing unknown to us, but we can imagine him saying, 'I will have a tuber here and a tuber there, and I will suck whatsoever advantage I can from all my surroundings. This neighbour I will overshadow, and that I will undermine; and what I can do shall be the limit of what I will do. He that is stronger and better placed than I shall overcome me, and him that is weaker I will overcome.'" --Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler |
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- Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
- Skillful.
See also
- The Cunning folk, a type of folk magic user
