- English translation
Your father left you empty-handed, and your uncle will not provide for you either.
- Literal wording
Your father left you nothing; your uncle gives you nothing.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying warns against treating help from relatives as a secure way to meet one’s needs. Kinship alone does not guarantee that someone will provide money or other support.
By naming a father and then an uncle, it presses the listener to reconsider an expectation: if nothing was left by one close relative, it is unwise to plan a livelihood around what another may give.
- When it is used
Use it to caution someone who is counting on a relative’s financial help, particularly when that help is uncertain. It urges the person to make plans that do not depend on an expected gift or provision.
- Register
- Colloquial
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Your father left you empty-handed, and your uncle will not provide for you either.