Word.ws English Dictionary

it is a wise child that knows his own father

it is a wise child that knows his own father proverb: one can never be sure of one's paternity.

Proverb

it is a wise child that knows his own father

  1. One can never be sure of one's paternity.
    • [Launcelot Gobbo]. Do you not know me Father? [Old] Gob[bo]. Alacke ſir, I am ſand blinde, I know you not. Lan.^([sic]) Nay, in deede if you had your eyes you might faile of the knowing me: it is a wiſe Father that knowes his own child.[c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act...
    • "My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Ulysses, but it is a wise child that knows his own father.[…]"1900, Homer, “Book I”, in Samuel Butler, transl., The Odyssey: Rendered into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original, London: A[rthur] C. Fifield, →OCLC, page 6

Origin of it is a wise child that knows his own father

The expression itself is ancient, attested in Homer’s Odyssey: “μήτηρ μέν τέ μέ φησι τοῦ ἔμμεναι, αὐτὰρ ἐγώ γε οὐκ οἶδ’· οὐ γάρ πώ τις ἑὸν γόνον αὐτὸς ἀνέγνω”. A version, “it is a wise father that knows his own child” (spelling modernized), is used in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and the modern version, in a translation of the Odyssey by Samuel Butler (see quotations), which likely popularized the proverb.

Questions about it is a wise child that knows his own father

What does it is a wise child that knows his own father mean?
It is a wise child that knows his own father means one can never be sure of one's paternity.
What part of speech is it is a wise child that knows his own father?
It is a wise child that knows his own father is a proverb.

Words near it is a wise child that knows his own father in the dictionary

  1. it girl
  2. it girls
  3. it goes without saying
  4. it happens
  5. it happens to the best of us
  6. it is a wise child that knows his own father
  7. it is always darkest before the dawn
  8. it is always darkest just before the dawn
  9. it is and it isn't
  10. it is as it is
  11. it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: it is a wise child that knows his own father (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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