Pot calling the kettle black

The phrase "Pot calling the kettle black" is an idiom, used to accuse another speaker of hypocrisy, in that the speaker disparages the subject for a fault or negative behavior that could equally be applied to him or her, though there is an alternative interpretation. In former times cast iron pots and kettles were quickly blackened from the soot of the fire. The pot would then be hypocritical to insult the kettle's color, since both are black with soot. When used in debate, the "pot calling the kettle black" may be illogical, as it is a form of the argument ad hominem.

Alternative interpretation

A subtler alternative interpretation, included by some but not all sources is that the pot is sooty (being placed on a fire), while the kettle is clean and shiny (being placed on coals only), and hence when the pot accuses the kettle of being black, it is the pot’s own sooty reflection that it sees: the pot accuses the kettle of a fault that only the pot has, rather than one that they share.

Similar phrases

• In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying, during the discourse on judgmentalism in the Sermon on the Mount, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" It should be noted, however, that "mote" and "beam" are not equivalent, and therefore the prescription applies to personal attacks that are not explicitly hypocritical more naturally than the pot/kettle aphorism.
• An aphorism sometimes attributed to George Herbert states, "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones".

Similar idioms in other languages

• Bangla: চালুনি কয় সুঁইরে, "তোর পিছনে ফুঁটো" ("Mesh sieve tells the needle", "You have a hole in your back")
• Bulgarian: Присмял се хърбел на щърбел. ("Nick laughed at dent")
• Chinese: "五十步笑百步", "乌鸦笑猪黑" ("Soldier who fled off the battle fifty steps afar laughs at those a hundred steps afar."), ("Crow laughing at the pig for being black")
• Croatian: Rugao se lonac loncu, a oba crna. ("Pot mocked another pot, and they were both black")
• Dutch: De pot verwijt de ketel dat hij zwart ziet ("The pot reproaches the kettle for looking black")
• Estonian: Pada sõimab katelt - ühed mustad mõlemad ("The pot reproaches the kettle - yet both of them are black")
• Finnish: Pata kattilaa soimaa ("The pot reproaches the kettle")
• French: La pelle se moque du fourgon ("The shovel mocks the poker"), L'hôpital se moque de la charité ("The hospital mocks the charity")
• German: Ein Esel schilt den andern Langohr. ("One donkey chides the other for being a long-ear")
• Greek: Είπε ο γάιδαρος τον πετεινό κεφάλα ("The donkey called the rooster a fathead")
• Hebrew: הפוסל במומו פוסל ("The disqualifier disqualifies based on his own fault")]http://hebrewlog.blogspot.com/2004/06/blog-post_108771123693970305.html[
• Hungarian: Bagoly mondja verébnek, hogy nagyfejű ("The owl tells the sparrow that it has a big head")
• Italian: Il Bos taurus che dice Fare le corna all'asino or Il bue che dà del cornuto all'asino ("The ox labelling the donkey cornute")
• Japanese: "目糞鼻糞を笑う" ("For the sleep in one's eyes to laugh at the snot in one's nose")
• Korean: "똥 묻은 개가 겨 묻은 개 나무란다" ("The dung-stained dog scolds the chaff-stained dog")
• Lithuanian: "Juokiasi puodas, kad katilas juodas" ("The pot is calling the cauldron black")
• Persian: ديگ به ديگ ميگه روت سياه ("The pot tells the other pot your face is black")
• Polish: Przyganiał kocioł garnkowi, a sam smoli ("The cauldron was reprimanding the pot and it soots itself"), often contracted to Przyganiał kocioł garnkowi ("The cauldron was reprimanding the pot")
• Portuguese: O sujo falando do mal-lavado ("The dirty slandering the unclean [as being unclean]") / Diz o roto ao nu ("One with torn clothes mocks the naked" / Olha quem fala ("Look who is talking")
• Romanian: Râde ciob de oală spartă ("The shard laughs at the broken pot")
• Russian: В чужом глазу соломину видеть, в своём -- бревна не замечать ("To see a little straw in other's eye, and not to notice a log in his own")
• Spanish: Apártate que me tiznas, dijo la sartén al cazo ("Move away, you are blackening me, said the pan to the pot") El burro hablando de orejas ("The donkey talking about ears") El comal le dijo a la olla, que tiznada estas ("The grill said to the pot, look how blackened you are")
• Venezuelan Spanish: Cachicamo diciéndole a morrocoy conchúo ("An armadillo telling a turtle it is too hard shelled")
• ว่าแต่เขา อิเหนาเป็นเอง (wâa dtàe kăo ì-năo bpen eng) ("As for Enau, he is the same") Look up อิเหนา
• Turkish: Tencere dibin kara, seninki benden kara ("Pot, your bottom's black; no, yours is blacker than mine")
• Uzbek: Ishtoni yoʻq ishtoni yirtiqdan kulgan ekan ("A man without pants laughed at man with holey pants")

Uses in literature

• Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote — "said the frying-pan to the kettle, get away, blackbreech
• Henry Fielding in Covent Garden Journal — "Dares thus the kettle to rebuke our sin!/Dares thus the kettle say the pot is black!"
• William Penn in Some fruits of Solitude - "For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality... is for the Pot to call the Kettle black."
• Margaret Mitchell in Gone with the Wind — "The pot's calling the kettle black."

The Geto Boyz in 'We Cant Be stopped' - "Aint that the pot calling the kettle black?"

See also

• Tu quoque

in law / juristic context:

• Unclean hands
• Equity (law)
• Equitable remedy

References