An old wives' tale is
a type of urban legend,
similar to a proverb,
which is generally passed down by old wives to a younger generation.
Such "tales" usually consist of superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details. Today old wives' tales are still common among children in school playgrounds. Old wives' tales often concern pregnancy, puberty and nutrition.
Examples of old wives' tales include:
- Ice cream leads to nightmares.
- It's bad luck to give a pair of gloves to a friend unless you receive something in exchange.
- Toes pointed up signify low blood sugar.
- High heart rates lead to female fetuses.
- If you step on a crack you'll break your mother's back/step on a line and break your mother's spine.
- Breaking a mirror will earn a person seven years of bad luck.
- Don't swallow gum or it will stay in your stomach for seven years.
- Various other stories, all resulting in "seven years" of something.
- It's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors.
- Making silly faces when the wind direction changes will make the silly face permanent.
source: wikipedia
"(...) Old wives' tales are perhaps as old as language itself. They're part of our oral tradition, originating long before pen and ink, books and movies, and certainly before the Internet. (...)
Many old wives' tales, especially those surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, have been proven false or irrelevant by advances in medicine and technology. One example is the use of prenatal ultrasound to detect the sex of a fetus instead of dangling a ring suspended on a string over the expectant woman's belly. According to the tale, if the ring swings from side to side, it's a girl, and if it swings in a circle, it's a boy. An ultrasound reading may not be as much fun, but the test results are certainly more accurate.
