Is it the same thing?

Question

"That's an Old Wives Tale" said Old Sid but Jez the landlord piped up, "It's Urban Myth now, Sid- Get with it". Is there a difference?

Answer 1

Not the same. Two different literary genres--

"Old wives' tale": a superstition rooted in traditional beliefs (often a carryover or debasement of a much earlier religious tradition) which speaks to cause-and-effect relationships: "if you break a mirror, you'll have 7 years bad luck" (note the causality issue). Old wives' tales are proverbial, not narrative, and always deal with causality.

"Urban myth": a form of narrative folklore in which contemporary anxieties are explored through telling a tale that the teller must assert really happened (usually to "a friend of a friend"), but for which there is no real historical basis; like "this couple who are friends with my dad's co-worker went on vacation in Tijuana, and they bought a hairless chihuahua, and it got really sick, so they took it to the vet, and the vet said it was a giant rat." Sometimes also called FOAF (friend of a friend) stories. Technically, from a literary-theory standpoint, urban myths are really not myths at all: they're urban legends. Urban myths are narrative, not proverbial, and always deal with anxieties.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

An "Old Wives Tale" is generally thought to have originated in the dim and distant past as a way of passing what is sometimes considered to be dubious advice but invariably was true to a degree, whereas an "Urban Myth" is a story thought up by some "oik" who thought it was fun to start a rumour, and like all rumours, if it's spread far enough and for long enough people begin to think it's true, BUT, it's a case of 'the answer's in the name' - it's just a MYTH.

Answer 3

An Urban Myth is something that has been popularized lately and usually dictates something ominous. Example - There's an alligator in the sewers of New York.

An old wives tale, is normally something that is a predictor or a tale from the older times.. Example - If you can see the underside of leaves when the wind blows , it's going to rain.

Answer 4

Urban Myths usually have some truth to them....Old Wives Tales are made up stories based on superstition that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Answer 5

Old wives tale is almost like a superstition, whereas the urban myth is more like a contemporary tale.

Answer 6

Yip, a lot of 'old wives tales ' actually work, like a docken leaf rubbed on a nettle sting, whereas Urban Myths are usually freaky horror stories.

Answer 7

an old wives tale generally refers to something such as a black cat crossing your path, or not to walk under ladders where as an urban myth is generally a scary story devised to try and prevent children or teenagers from getting up to no good - i.e. the teenagers making out in the car in the woods, boy gets out to go pee and next thing she hears a scratching on the roof and it's her dead boyfriend hanging from a tree!

anyway hope this helps xx

Answer 8

old wives tales usually refer to some daft cure for something or some dire event that will befall you if you put your shoes on the table.
an urban myth is usually something like crocodiles in the sewage system .

Answer 9

yep, urban myth is more modern, contemporary, while the old wives tale is very, very old

Answer 10

Thinking about it i would say that they are both the same things. Just told in different ways. Couldn't say for certain though but am also interested to know for sure.