- English translation
Why all the dashing about with your skirts tucked up? She answered: I'm the one who holds the key to the corncob pile!
- Literal wording
What is the matter with you, running and hitching up your clothes? She said: The key to the corncobs is with me.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying mocks a person who rushes about, hem lifted to move faster, full of importance because of a responsibility that carries no real weight. The key guards only spent corncobs, the bare cobs kept as fuel, yet it is treated as a grand office, so the excitement is wildly out of proportion.
More broadly, it targets boasting or fussing over possessions, titles, or tasks of little worth. Although the exchange addresses a woman in feminine forms, its point is inflated self-regard, not a trait of women. It deflates someone puffed up by a minor role and often lands as gentle ridicule.
- When it is used
Use it teasingly about someone who bustles around with self-important urgency over a trivial duty or a worthless privilege, such as guarding a key nobody needs. It fits informal, mocking banter rather than serious criticism.
- Community
- rural speakers
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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