«اِلْحَيَّهْ تِخَلِّفْ حُوَيَّهْ»

The proverb claims that wicked parents produce children who turn out just as wicked. A venomous creature, it suggests, can only breed more venom, so a parent's bad character is expected to reappear in the next generation. This reflects the saying's own judgment, not an established fact about inheritance.

In practice the image accuses two people at once. The diminutive 'little snake' marks the child as offspring rather than softening the insult, and naming the parent snake traces the behavior to its source. It is not a neutral remark about family resemblance or a friendly 'like father, like son.'

Said when a child shows the same malice, cunning, or harmful habits as a parent, often while disapproving of both. It is a sharp, insulting remark, better suited to gossip or reproach than to polite speech, and it should not be applied to admirable inherited traits.