Word.ws English Dictionary

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar phrase: sometimes a matter is simpler than one imagines it to be.

Phrase

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

  1. (idiomatic) Sometimes a matter is simpler than one imagines it to be.
    • Dude, quit thinking about it so much. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
    • In a forced attempt at humor, she added, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, right?” “Sometimes,” Tina said as she passed back the drawing.2008, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Persistence of Memory, Random House, →ISBN, page 7

Forms of sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

alternative formsometimes a cigar is a cigar

Origin of sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Frequently attributed to Sigmund Freud, whose theories of psychoanalysis and psychosexuality often explained various human behaviors in terms of sexual desires, and thus a cigar could be imagined as a phallic symbol indicating some inner trait of the person smoking it. This phrase reverses this concept, admitting that sometimes the cigar really is just a cigar, and that not everything is always so deep as it could be made out to be. The medical journal Psychiatry cited in an issue from 1950 that this "famous" quote was uttered by Freud 30 years earlier, although neither any written records from Freud himself, nor especial widespread use from that time period before 1950, could be found. Alan C. Elms explains this attribution as most likely apocryphal, although the origin of the phrase in psychoanalysis is still possible: Eric Hiller in 1922 published a psychoanalytic article suggesting that cigars indeed have a phallic symbolism, so this term's coinage as ironic phrase making light of this claim remains a possible origin.

Words formed from sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Questions about sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

What does sometimes a cigar is just a cigar mean?
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar means sometimes a matter is simpler than one imagines it to be.
What part of speech is sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar is a phrase.

Words near sometimes a cigar is just a cigar in the dictionary

  1. somethingth
  2. somethink
  3. sometime
  4. sometimes
  5. sometimes a cigar is a cigar
  6. sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
  7. sometimes food
  8. sometimes foods
  9. sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you
  10. someting
  11. sometyme

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar (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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