- English translation
Just an eggplant short, and now the pot is spilling over with plenty!
- Literal wording
The pot was lacking an eggplant; it has become overflowing and full.
- Meaning and lesson
On the surface the saying describes a pot that lacked only a single eggplant, a small, ordinary vegetable, and is then declared brimming over. It can describe a person who moves from scarcity to comfort, the small gap closing until the household seems suddenly well supplied.
In practice the line usually carries mockery: the 'overflowing' pot is a jab, not genuine praise. It pokes fun at a late, modest addition, or at newfound means, being made to look far grander than it is; the joke lies in the gap between something trivial and the claim of fullness.
- When it is used
Say it wryly when someone who recently had little starts acting wealthy, or when a minor, newly arrived addition is treated as if it completed or transformed everything. It suits teasing among familiar people and can sound dismissive if aimed at a stranger.
- Register
- Colloquial; most often ironic or mocking
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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