Silver lining (idiom)

For other uses, see Silver lining (disambiguation).

A 1920 cartoon depicting George Lansbury.
Captions:
Under a cloud (with a golden lining).
Comrade Lansbury. "Thanks to my faithful brolski not a drop has touched me."
[Loud crows from "Daily Herald" bird.]
Possibly reflecting an allegation of Soviet funding for the Independent Labour Party. Lansbury founded the Daily Herald.

A cloud with a silver lining

A silver lining is a metaphor for optimism in vernacular English, which means a negative occurrence may have a positive aspect to it. ^[2]

Origin

John Milton coined the phrase 'silver lining' in his poem Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle , 1634:

I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were
To keep my life and honor unassailed.
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. ^{[3] [4]}

It is a metaphor referring to the silvery, shining edges of a cloud backlit by the Sun or the Moon.

See also

• Idiom
• Felix culpa
• Silver Lining (disambiguation)
• Is the glass half empty or half full?

References

1. Cartoon from Punch, Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, September 22, 1920 by Various
2. every cloud has a silver lining idiom definition.
3. "'Every cloud has a silver lining' - the meaning and origin of this phrase". 11 December 2023.
4. "Lining, N. (1), Sense 2.b". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP. September 2023. doi:10.1093/OED/4708232904 . Retrieved 3 March 2024.

External links

• The dictionary definition of silver lining at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of every cloud has a silver lining at Wiktionary