View source for Let sleeping dogs lie

{{Short description|English proverb}}
{{About|a proverb|literature and movie titles|Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (disambiguation){{!}}Let Sleeping Dogs Lie}}

"'''Let sleeping dogs lie'''" is an English [[proverb]] known at least since the 14th century. This [[saying]]  suggests that when an old problem is no longer causing anyone trouble, it might be better left undiscussed: "Possibly he cohabited with Miss Bloggs, but don't mention it in front of his wife, let the sleeping dogs lie",{{sfn | Jarvie | 2009 | p=218 | loc=let sleeping dogs lie}} and dormant controversies should not be restarted even if they were never resolved.{{sfn | Mamatas | 2013 | p=107}}{{sfn | Ayto | 2020 | p=}} This intent is similar to the meanings of sayings like "Don't rock the boat", "Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you".{{sfn | Manser | Fergusson | Pickering | 2007 | p=165}}

== History ==
An early version in {{lang-enm|"It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake"}} belongs to [[Chaucer]] ({{circa|1385}} [[Anno Domini|AD]], "[[Troilus and Criseyde]]", III.764){{sfn | Mamatas | 2013 | p=107}} and is predated by earlier {{lang-fr|n'ésveillez pas lou chien qui dort}}, "wake not the sleeping dog" (early 14th century).{{sfn | Speake | 2015 | p=288}} The Chaucer's character, [[Pandarus]], when uttering the phrase, is speaking literally, referring to [[Criseyde]]'s ladies sleeping outside her chamber.{{sfn|Leininger|1960|pp=52-53}}

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs{{sfn | Speake | 2015 | p=288}} traces the following evolution of the saying:
* {{lang-enm|It is euill wakyng of a slepyng dog}} (1546, [[John Heywood]] in "{{Not a typo|A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongues}}");
* ''It's best To let a sleeping [[mastiff]] rest'' (1681, [[Samuel Colvil]] in "The Whigs Supplication");
* ''Take my advice and [ask] as little about him as he does about you. Best to let sleeping dogs lie'' (the first known use of the modern phrasing, 1824, [[Walter Scott]] in the "[[Redgauntlet]]").

In the 19th century the modern version was already popular.{{sfn | Mamatas | 2013 | p=107}} Widespread use in the 20th century (see Bryan and Mieder{{sfn | Bryan | Mieder | 2005 | p=220}} for some literary sources) made the proverb very recognizable, enabling some significant modifications, from "It is my policy to let sleeping senators lie" ([[Gore Vidal]] attacking his opponent Senator [[S. I. Hayakawa]] who was prone to napping in the chamber){{sfn | Norrick | 1985 | p=23}} to “let sleeping dogmas lie” ([[Edmund Gosse]]).{{sfn|West|2012}}

== Other languages ==
The {{lang-de|Schlafende Hunde}} ("sleeping dog") was an [[idiom]] for a dangerous subject that should not be touched upon since at least the 16th century.{{sfn|Grimm|1854}}<!-- verified: https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=H13200 --> The form of expression varies.{{sfn | Ruef | 1995 | p=188}} {{lang-de|schlafende Hunde wecken}} ("to wake the sleeping dogs") is to create an inconvenience to oneself by attracting attention.{{sfn | Duden | 2020 | p=662}} 

{{lang-it|non svegliare il can che dorme}}{{sfn | Mayer | 2015 | p=19}} dates back to {{circa|1345}}, when {{ill|Bosone da Gubbio|it}} made a [[wordplay]] ({{lang-it|non sveglian lo can che dorme}}) on an {{lang-it|gran Can del Catai}}, the [[Chinese Emperor]].{{sfn|Mosti|2014|p=6}}

Expression is known in Russian, usually in the form {{lang-ru|не буди лихо, пока оно тихо}}, "don't wake up trouble while it is quiet".{{sfn | Голицына | 2023 | p=23}}

In Swedish, the expression is practically the same as in English, but the dog is replaced by a bear: {{lang-sv|väck inte den björn som sover}}, "don't wake a sleeping bear".<ref>{{cite thesis|last1=Hagel |first1=AnnChristin |title=Grasping the Idea The Use and Understanding of Figurative Language in a First and a Second Language - A Matter of Language Skills or a Matter of Age? |publisher=Luleå University of Technology |degree=Bachelor of Arts in Education |url=https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1028143/FULLTEXT02 
 | page = 46}}</ref>

The idiom is unfamiliar to the speakers of [[Arabic]] who mostly fail to recognize its meaning.{{sfn|Al Kayed|Alkayid|Essa|2023}}

== See also ==
* [[The dogs of war (phrase)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book | last=Jarvie | first=G. | title=Bloomsbury Dictionary of Idioms | publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4081-2492-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svfo4CW1GTMC&pg=PT21 | access-date=2024-06-09}}
* {{cite book | last=Mamatas | first=Nick | author-link= Nick Mamatas | title=Quotes Every Man Should Know | publisher=Quirk Books | series=Stuff You Should Know | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-59474-656-7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLunN2xagQgC&pg=PA107 | access-date=2024-06-09 | page=107 | chapter = Let sleeping dogs lie }}
* {{cite book |last1=Grimm |first1=Brothers |title=Deutsches Wörterbuch |date=1854 |chapter=HUND | language=de}}
* {{cite book | last=Голицына | first=Н. | title=Английские идиомы. 500 самых употребительных устойчивых выражений | publisher=АСТ | year=2023 | isbn=978-5-04-589650-4 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDv0EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 | language=ru | access-date=2024-06-09 | trans-title = English Idioms | chapter=Dog }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Al Kayed |first1=Murad |last2=Alkayid |first2=Majd |last3=Essa |first3=Lama Bani |title=A contrastive study of the connotative meanings of "dog-related" expressions in English and Jordanian proverbs: Implications for translators and language teachers |journal=Acta Linguistica Petropolitana |date=2023 |issue=19–1 |pages=66–101 |url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/a-contrastive-study-of-the-connotative-meanings-of-dog-related-expressions-in-english-and-jordanian-proverbs-implications-for}}
* {{cite book | last1=Bryan | first1=G.B. | last2=Mieder | first2=W. | title=A Dictionary of Anglo-American Proverbs & Proverbial Phrases, Found in Literary Sources of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries | publisher=Peter Lang | series=G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-8204-7947-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1t2eo3LMzRQC&pg=PA220 | access-date=2024-06-09}}
* {{cite journal |last1=West |first1=David |title=(Review of) Stylistic Use of Phraseological Units in Discourse |journal=Changing English, Routledge Journal |date=2012 |volume=19 |url=https://www.naciscione.com/resources/west2012.pdf}}
* {{cite book | last=Schilling | first=Silvia | title=An Analysis of English Expressions Concerning Cats and Dogs | date=2018 | isbn=978-3-346-13425-7 | chapter = Let sleeping dogs lie | page = 3| publisher=Bod Third Party Titles }}
* {{cite book | last=Speake | first=J. | title=Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs | publisher=[[OUP Oxford]] | series=Oxford Quick Reference | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-19-105959-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMGPCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA288 | access-date=2024-06-09 | chapter = Let SLEEPING dogs lie}}
* {{cite book | last=Ayto | first=John | title=Oxford Dictionary of Idioms | publisher=Oxford University Press, USA | publication-place=Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY | date=2020-06-18 | isbn=978-0-19-884562-1 | oclc=on1151947753 | chapter=let sleeping dogs lie}}
* {{cite book | last1=Manser | first1=M.H. | last2=Fergusson | first2=R. | last3=Pickering | first3=D. | title=The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs | publisher=Facts On File | series=Facts on File library of language and literature | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-8160-6673-5 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgaUQc8NbTYC&pg=PA165 | access-date=2024-06-09 | chapter=let sleeping dogs lie}}
* {{cite thesis | last=Leininger | first=Lorie Jerrell  | title=Chaucer's Use of Proverbs in the Troilus and Criseyde | publisher=[[University of Arizona]] | year=1960 | url=https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/319613/AZU_TD_BOX15_E9791_1960_117.pdf?sequence=1 | access-date=2024-06-09 | degree = Master of Arts}}
* {{cite book | last=Ruef | first=H. | title=Sprichwort und Sprache: am Beispiel des Sprichworts im Schweizerdeutschen | publisher=W. de Gruyter | series=Studia linguistica Germanica | year=1995 | isbn=978-3-11-014494-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ELGoqXThNQC&pg=PA188 | language=de | access-date=2024-06-09}}
* {{cite book | title=Duden – Redewendungen: Wörterbuch der deutschen Idiomatik | publisher=Duden | series=Duden - Deutsche Sprache in 12 Bänden | year=2020 | isbn=978-3-411-91305-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1T3mEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA662 | language=de | ref={{sfnref | Duden | 2020}} | access-date=2024-06-09}}
* {{cite book | last=Mayer | first=S. | title=Italienisch lernen: italienische Sprichwörter - Redewendungen - Ausdrücke | publisher=Sabine Mayer | year=2015 | isbn=978-605-038-952-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KYyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT19 | language=de | access-date=2024-06-09}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Mosti |first1=Rossella |title=Italiano antico e italiano moderno: notizie dal TLIO |journal=Italogramma |date=2014 |volume=7 |url=https://www.academia.edu/10415682 | language=it}}
* {{cite book|last = Norrick | first = Neal R. | date = 1985 | title = How Proverbs Mean: Semantic Studies in English Proverbs | series = Trends in Linguistics: Studies and monographs | number = 27 | location = Berlin, New York, Amsterdam | publisher = Mouton Publishers | isbn = 3-11-010196-3 | lccn = 85-4837 }}

[[Category:English proverbs]]


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