"nothing ventured, nothing gained" meaning in English

See nothing ventured, nothing gained in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Audio: En-au-nothing ventured, nothing gained.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Attested since 1546 in a book of English proverbs by John Heywood (see quotation below). Perhaps translated from or influenced by French Qui onques rien n'enprist riens n'achieva (“One who never undertook anything never gained anything”). Though a translation, a similar phrase of "Nothing ventured, nothing have." appears in Sir George Dasent's translation of the Icelandic text "The Saga of the Burnt Njal" (events occurring between 960 and 1020 A.D.), suggesting it may have gone back much further. However, certain translations of Herodotus 7.9 include "if nothing is ventured in life, then nothing is gained". Suggesting either the phrase or something similar stretches to even before 960AD. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} nothing ventured, nothing gained
  1. If one takes no risks, one will not gain any benefits. Wikipedia link: French language, Njáls saga Synonyms: no pain, no gain, the benefit outweighs the cost

Download JSON data for nothing ventured, nothing gained meaning in English (3.6kB)

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  "etymology_text": "Attested since 1546 in a book of English proverbs by John Heywood (see quotation below). Perhaps translated from or influenced by French Qui onques rien n'enprist riens n'achieva (“One who never undertook anything never gained anything”). Though a translation, a similar phrase of \"Nothing ventured, nothing have.\" appears in Sir George Dasent's translation of the Icelandic text \"The Saga of the Burnt Njal\" (events occurring between 960 and 1020 A.D.), suggesting it may have gone back much further.\nHowever, certain translations of Herodotus 7.9 include \"if nothing is ventured in life, then nothing is gained\". Suggesting either the phrase or something similar stretches to even before 960AD.",
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          "ref": "1546, John Heywood, A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tongue compacte in a matter concernyng two maner of mariages, The fyrste parte. The leuenth chapiter",
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          "ref": "1842, E.S.J., “Julia Dayton: Or the power of truth over error”, in Universalist Union, page 609",
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          "ref": "1944, W. Julian King, The Unwritten Laws of Engineering, page 22",
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      "word": "the benefit outweighs the cost"
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  ],
  "word": "nothing ventured, nothing gained"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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