when in Rome, do as the Romans do
English
Alternative forms
- when in Rome, do as the Romans (less common)
- when in Rome, do like the Romans do (less common)
Etymology
The first attestation is Medieval Latin si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sīcut ibī (“if you should be in Rome, live in the Roman manner; if you should be elsewhere, live as they do there”), which is attributed to St Ambrose.
Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) uses the phrase “When they are at Rome, they doe there as they see done.”[1]
Proverb
Quotations
For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Synonyms
- when in Rome (ellipsis, more common)
Translations
behave as those around do
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References
- Democritus Junier [i.e. Robert Burton] (1621) The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With All the Kindes, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Severall Cures of it, Oxford: Henry Cripps, part. 3, sec. 4, memb. 1, subs. 3, page 768
- Seferyan, S. S.; Hovhannisyan, L. V.; Lazaryan, A. A. (1986) Angleren-hayeren darjvacabanakan baṙaran [English–Armenian Phraseological Dictionary], Yerevan: University Press, page 179
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