- English translation
A man who refuses to acknowledge his own father is as good as illegitimate.
- Literal wording
Whoever does not know his father is a child born outside marriage.
- Meaning and lesson
This is an emphatic moral rebuke for a person who rejects or casts off his father. It treats such conduct as a grave failure of family duty, using a deliberately severe, stigmatizing insult connected with birth outside marriage to underline condemnation.
The saying can also denounce neglect of parental obligations more broadly. Its point is not to establish anyone’s parentage, but to portray disregard for one’s father or parents as conduct deserving strong social and moral blame; it should not be read as endorsing the stigma in its wording.
- When it is used
Use it to describe severe disapproval of someone perceived as disowning a father or neglecting parental duties. As traditional moral rhetoric, it is confrontational and potentially hurtful because it invokes stigma around birth outside marriage; avoid using it as a direct remark or as a literal claim about parentage.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: A man who refuses to acknowledge his own father is as good as illegitimate.