Meaning & Analysis
To hate or avoid someone as intensely as one would avoid a deadly poison.
Insights
Extreme Aversion
The proverb is a vivid way to express the utmost loathing or avoidance, equating someone’s presence or character with a mortal threat.
Instinctive Self-Preservation
It draws on the universal instinct to recoil from what is dangerous or harmful, suggesting that some people provoke an immediate, almost physical, sense of repulsion.
Historical Symbolism
Poison has long symbolized ultimate harm and betrayal in literature and folklore, so to shun someone 'like poison' equates them with the most feared and treacherous dangers.
Cultural Universality
The phrase is part of a broader tradition across many languages, where loathing or avoidance is compared to fleeing deadly substances, highlighting the emotional intensity of such feelings.
Psychological Dimension
The proverb captures the emotional logic of aversion: just as poison threatens the body, certain people or relationships are perceived as threats to well-being and are instinctively avoided.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The direct comparison ('like poison') uses a familiar image to intensify the description of hatred or avoidance.
Hyperbole
Equating personal dislike to the fear of poison exaggerates the feeling for rhetorical impact.
Metaphor
'Poison' operates as a metaphor for a person’s toxic influence, reinforcing the severity of the emotional response.
Transcription
Quotations
He hateth me lyke poyson.
She shuns me like poyson.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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