- English translation
Were a camel ever to see its own hump, it would bite the thing away.
- Literal wording
The camel, should it look at its hump, would bite it off.
- Meaning and lesson
A camel goes through life carrying a crooked lump on its back that sits just outside its own line of sight. If it ever turned and caught a look at that bulge, it would gnaw it off to be rid of the ugly flaw.
Applied to people, the camel stands for anyone who cannot perceive their own defects. A person's shortcomings stay hidden from that person, and the saying implies that if they were truly seen, the owner would hurry to remove or conceal them.
- When it is used
Fits remarks about a person's inability to perceive their own faults, using the camel and its unseen hump as the image for a flaw its bearer never notices.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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