what does 'pot kettle black' mean? where did it come from?

Answer 1

Basically it's when someone says something that applies to themselves more than the person they are saying it to.

Imagine a kettle over an open coal fire - it would get pretty black with soot, but the cooking pot is put right on the flames for longer and is covered in it. To say the pot is calling the kettle black would be like Michael Jackson saying that Michael Douglass has had too much plastic surgery.

Answer 2

You are the pot calling the kettle black when you point to another person and accuse that person of doing something that you are guilty of doing yourself. Example: "You are accusing me of being lazy? Ha! That's the pot calling the kettle black!"

"The pot" (for cooking) and "the kettle" (for boiling water) sit on the stove over the fire and become black from the flames. Example: "I'm tired of you always wearing my clothing!" Answer: "Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black? You're wearing my pants right now!"

The pot and the kettle are like old friends who have turned black with time; the pot only sees the blackness which is on the kettle; he doesn't see the black on himself. Example: "Here comes the guy who is always late for work." Answer: "Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black? You are usually the last person to show up!"

Answer 3

You shouldn't criticise someone about something when you are doing the same thing yourself.

Where did it come from? Well, picture a pot and a kettle on a stove top (one of those very old stoves with a fire underneath). There is a kettle and a pot. The pot says to the kettle 'Ooooh, look, you're all black"; the kettle replies "Well, so are you." In the old days all pots and kettles were made of heavy black cast iron.
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Answer 4

A pot and kettle are apparently both black. So if "the pot is calling the kettle black", it's basically calling a person out on something that they think is bad, but they're also doing it.

Answer 5

Actually the saying goes ...the pot calling the kettle black..."
It means when two items (people) are in the same situation (on the stove-a wood stove that burns wood incompletely leaving soot on the kitchen ware) then one is not any better than the other because they ARE in the same place. Imagine a pot thinking it is a better utensil than a kettle...both are wearing soot from the fire. Myself, I'll take a cup o'tea from the kettle, and cook dinner in the pot...

Answer 6

In olden days, all pans, pots and kettles were made of iron, which when used becomes black, so basically all your cooking was done in a black vessel, whether you were boiling water in a kettle, or stewing a pot of beans.
So "the pot calling the kettle black" means that one person is criticizing another for doing or being the very thing that the criticizer (sp) is him- or herself.
I hope you can understand this explanation.

Answer 7

meaning: somebody who faults yet another for faults conspicuously his own. occasion: you think of police could provide up all those different poor drivers? that is like the pot calling the kettle black! beginning: This expression dates lower back to the seventeenth Century. In historical circumstances, pots to boot as kettles would probably be blackened over the open cooking fires of the day. decision: "The pot calling the kettle black: mentioned of somebody accusing yet another of faults equivalent to those dedicated by ability of the accuser. The allusion is to the old companion and infants wherein the copper kettle would be stored polished, jointly as the iron pot would proceed to be black. The kettle's remarkable section would mirror the pot. The pot, seeing its mirrored photograph, would for this reason see black, which might seem to be on the component of the kettle. The pot ought to then accuse the kettle of a fault it did no longer have." source: Brewer's Dictionary of word and fantasy, 1870, revised by ability of Adrian Room (Millennium version) by way of Jan Heirtzler.

Answer 8

"The pot calling the kettle black" is the phrase as both were black in earlier days by being on hooks over an open fire it was considered that neither was better or different to the other

Answer 9

"The pot calling the kettle black" is similar to the biblical "mote/beam" metaphor. ie the pot and the kettle are both soot stained from the fire so the pot doesn't really have the right to criticise the kettle

Answer 10

It is a saying " Like the pot calling the kettle black ! " meaning that the pot is black and it is slagging off the kettle for being black - it's like calling someone a hypocrite if you say this saying to them, by insinuating they are critisising something that they themselves belive