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Longman Modern English Dictionary: a proverb is "a brief familiar maxim of folk wisdom, usually compressed in form, often involving a bold image and frequently a jingle that catches the memory.

Of course, there are many other definitions of proverbs given by other authoritative books, experts, and scholars in English dictionary. Gregory Titelman (96-97): "Proverbs are the collective wisdom of all nations, of all ages, of all times. A proverb typically expresses a commonplace thought in a succinct, often metaphorical way’. Most of the definitions are not very comprehensive, because some of them focus on the forms, some concentrate on the meanings, and some emphasize the embedded wisdom or philosophy.” Therefore, if the data are collected according to one of those above-mentioned definitions, the data will not be comprehensive and large.

However, in many specialized dictionaries there are also many different Chinese definitions of proverb from different cultural perspectives. The English version is translated by the author himself, so the Chinese version is kept in case there are any mistakes.