Where Luxembourgish proverbs come from: a short history of the country’s sayings

Luxembourgish proverbs were said long before they were written. Here is how they travelled — from kitchens, farms and fairs into three dictionaries and finally into the LOD, where you can hear a native speaker say each one.

Updated November 3, 2026 · 6 min read

For most of its history Luxembourgish was a spoken language. People wrote in Latin, French and German — the languages of the church, the courts and the school — and spoke Luxembourgish at home, at work and at the market. Proverbs belonged to that spoken world: short, rhythmic sentences that a grandmother could say over the stove and a child could repeat years later. If you want the background on the language itself, start with is Luxembourgish a language or a dialect? and the three languages of Luxembourg.

A shared European stock

Many Luxembourgish proverbs say what English, French and German proverbs say — because they grew from the same medieval and biblical stock and travelled with traders, priests and soldiers. The words are Luxembourgish; the wisdom is European. Compare them side by side in the same proverb in English, French and Luxembourgish.

Even when the idea is shared, the Luxembourgish wording often has its own twist: the mice do not just play while the cat is away, they become the masters of the house; hunger is not the best sauce but the best cook. The 16 best-known Luxembourgish proverbs show many of these small differences.

Farm, forest and fair: what the sayings remember

Proverbs keep the world of the people who made them. Luxembourgish ones are full of farmers, cows, potatoes, wolves and village fairs — the country was largely rural until the iron and steel industry arrived in the south in the 19th century. You can learn the everyday words behind them on our pages about animals, farming and food.

Written down at last: three dictionaries

The first book printed in Luxembourgish, a small collection of poems by Antoine Meyer, appeared in 1829 — the story of the first writers is told in Meyer, Lentz, Dicks and Rodange. Dictionaries followed, and with them the first written record of many sayings:

Between 2007 and 2010 the University of Luxembourg and the Trier Center for Digital Humanities digitised the three historical dictionaries in the LexicoLux project, so they can be searched online and compared with the dialects across the borders in Germany, Belgium and France. The modern LOD links many of its entries to the 1950–77 dictionary. When you check a saying today, you are standing on almost two centuries of collecting.

Sayings that changed with the language

Spelling changed several times — the current official spelling was set in 1975 and revised in 1999 and 2019 — so old collections write the same proverb differently. The LOD uses today’s spelling, including the n-rule that drops a final n before most consonants. Listen for it here:

If the spelling of ë, é and ä is new to you, read Luxembourgish spelling and how to pronounce Luxembourgish first — proverbs are a good way to train both.

Where the sayings live today

Proverbs are still part of everyday Luxembourgish: you hear them from grandparents, colleagues and in the media, often half-said — the speaker gives the first part and lets you finish it in your head. Idioms, the shorter fixed phrases, are even more common; we explain thirty of them in everyday Luxembourgish idioms, and group many more by theme: animals, the body, food and drink, money and work, love and friendship and time and patience.

A proverb is a whole sentence that natives already know by heart, so learning one teaches word order, verb forms and rhythm at the same time. The verbs inside them — maachen, goen, kommen, fannen — are the core verbs of the language. If you are just starting, our 100 common verbs and the free Luxembourgish level test will tell you where you stand.

Reading a saying is one thing; using it at the right moment is another. For that, practise with a person: on Edluxio you can book 1-to-1 online lessons with independent teachers, native speakers among them, and try your new sayings in a real conversation. Book a trial lesson; if your first lesson isn’t right for you, you get a full refund.

Keep learning

• 16 Luxembourgish proverbs everyone knows
• 30 everyday Luxembourgish idioms
• Animal idioms and proverbs
• Idioms about the body
• Food and drink sayings
• Money and work in proverbs
• Love, friends and family in sayings
• Sayings about time, patience and luck
• Kiermes, priests and Prussians: village life in sayings
• The same proverb in English, French and Luxembourgish
• Tongue twisters and sound drills
• How to say hello · thank you · how are you
• Cheers in Luxembourgish · good luck
• How to learn Luxembourgish online
• Is Luxembourgish hard to learn?
• Every Luxembourgish verb table, with audio
• All free Luxembourgish resources
• Free Luxembourgish level test
• Luxembourgish grammar guides
• The Luxembourgish dictionary by topic
• How to say everyday phrases in Luxembourgish