Patience

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The patience thread is the pictorial expression for the perseverance of patience . The phrase comes from the field of textile production , whereby there are two different contexts.

  1. The thread , which is taut when unwinding from the bobbin , is overstrained or strained , which is pulled , and which can break as a result . Goethe already used the expression in 1811 in his biography Poetry and Truth (14th book). And the German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm also refers to this use by Goethe and Brentano under the keyword "patience thread" . The picture has become so independent that it is now sufficient to say that patience itself breaks. The measure of the thread of patience is the thickness, strength or insensitivity. It is not uncommon for patience to hang by a thread that breaks particularly easily.
  2. The thread that runs off the bobbin until the bobbin is empty. The saying goes then that patience has run out. In the "Demands of the suburb of St. George and the reaction of the property owners' association (end of May 1848)" it says: The people's long-suffering is great, but when patience has expired, even the meek becomes a tiger. (from: Die Reform, No. 19, 1848, pp. 75 f.). This is also the basis of the Spanish proverb when the thread has run out, one looks for the needle . The measure of the patience thread here is the length up to the endless patience thread .

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