proverb · Words worth keeping
The cock crows and the hen goes.
The cock crows and the hen goes.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying places a cock’s crow before a hen’s movement. It gives a voice and a following action different roles without supplying a wider setting.
What the words are saying
Crows and goes make the sequence concise. A qualified human analogy may concern one person announcing and another carrying something out, but the text does not establish that as its original intention. If used to impose a gender hierarchy, the comparison needs criticism. Its literal animal description also provides no evidence for a universal behavioural rule.
Everyday example
A group distinguishes who announces a task from who performs it without assigning those roles by gender.
When to use it
Use it as a qualified analogy about announcement and action.
What it does not mean
The source does not establish natural authority, a gender rule or verified animal behaviour.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 284 · Cock
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English