wellerism means A proverb, often a fatuous one, attributed to speaker in a situation. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
WELLERISM — [Noun] A proverb or familiar quotation attributed to a specific speaker in a humorous or incongruous situation, often followed by a facetious sequel. From the proper name Weller (after Sam Weller, a character in Charles Dickens's 1836 novel *The Pickwick Papers*) + the suffix -ism (denoting a characteristic style or system). Unlike a “proverb,” which floats as anonymous wisdom, or a “malapropism,” which stumbles on a verbal error, the wellerism is a deliberate, theatrical vignette of misapplication. It is the weary resignation of “We must all hang together,” declared by the man found lynched; the smug satisfaction of “Every man has his price,” as the fisherman said when his wife fell overboard; the grim irony of “I see,” said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw. It is humor forged in the gap between abstract maxim and concrete, foolish reality, a reminder that all wisdom, once uttered, awaits its absurd and specific doom.
noun
- A proverb, often a fatuous one, attributed to speaker in a situation.“Examples of Romance Wellerisms are rather infrequent in literature and must be gathered from oral tradition.”