- English translation
If good meat is inexpensive, tripe will be inexpensive as well.
- Literal wording
When meat becomes cheap, tripe becomes cheap too.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb says that a fall in the price of a better food item is accompanied by a fall in the price of a poorer one. Even when both are cheap, the difference between the better and lesser goods is not removed.
It stresses relative value rather than cheapness alone. Lower prices may affect goods across a comparison, but they do not make the inferior item equal to the superior one in quality or standing within that comparison.
- When it is used
Use it when discussing prices of goods of unequal quality, especially when both become less expensive. It highlights that a general drop in price does not cancel the difference in value between the better item and the lesser one.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: If good meat is inexpensive, tripe will be inexpensive as well.