What does familiarity breeds contempt mean

Kira: Yeah. Usually I like people a lot at first, but the longer I know them, the more I discover bad aspects of their personality. Dan: Yeah, that makes sense. I still like you after all these years. The following example involves two women talking about the book club meeting they just attended.

Words nearby Familiarity breeds contempt familial polyendocrine adenomatosis , familial screening , familial spinal muscular atrophy , familiar , familiarity , Familiarity breeds contempt , familiarize , families , familism , Familist , famille. All rights reserved. How to use Familiarity breeds contempt in a sentence And there is definitely something to finding solace in food, familiarity, and memory.

The Bondboy George W. George Washington Ogden. Discover many more proverbs and other common sayings here. As just mentioned, a proverb is said to express a universal truth.

But does familiarity always cause contempt? Not necessarily, say psychologists, who often help couples in romantic relationships find harmony and happiness. They note that in fact familiarity can bring couples closer and breed stronger intimacy and love. In one article, a psychologist encourages thinking of the problem not as familiarity itself but rather what a person is becoming accustomed to and familiar with.

If, for example, there are negative patterns in a relationship, those can absolutely be a case of familiarity breeds contempt.

But on the flip side, consistent positive communication and loving gestures over a long period of time are a good example in which familiarity is unlikely to cause one partner to despise the other.

Likewise, while familiarity with a job or hobby could cause one to dislike it, or at least at times feel bored with it, it could actually sometimes make a person love it more.

Familiarity breeds contempt is an old adage that means the better you know someone or something, the more likely you are to find fault with that person or thing and feel hostility or hatred towards them or it, or to begin devaluing them or it.

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