Word of the Day: Proverbial
Of course, the word proverbial relates to something from a proverb, but today I’m going to introduce its other usage, which is to be well known.
In North America, most people would think about a traditional door-to-door salesperson or maybe even a car salesman.
Maybe some of you think I should be gender-neutral here, but you’re wrong. The image people have is of a man because the image is set in the 1950s when the traveling salesman was ubiquitous.
What kind of person do you think of?
The proverbial vacuum cleaner salesman brings to mind images of men knocking on doors and trying to sell a product to a housewife.
Again, please keep in mind I say ‘housewife’ because the image is set in the 1950s. These days it’s much more politically correct to say, homemaker.
The image of a salesman who dumps a bagful of dust and dirt on a person’s carpet and then demonstrates how well the vacuum cleaner sucks it up.
It also creates ideas of dishonesty and trickery because even today we all know you should never trust a sales associate 100%.
Their job is to sell and sometimes they will say anything to turn the prospective customer into a new customer.
We can say this is an image of the proverbial vacuum cleaner salesman because this image would be well known to most people.
Proverbial can be used in other ways as well.
If there is someone in your community who is well known for their quick temper, then you can say “I met Joe at the corner store yesterday and got a firsthand demonstration of his proverbial quick temper.”
In the community, he is well known for his quick temper.
