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A silver lining is a
A silver lining is a metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
for optimism
Optimism is the Attitude (psychology), attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is Is the glass half empty ...
in vernacular English, which means a negative occurrence may have a positive aspect to it.
Origin
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
coined the phrase 'silver lining' in his poem '' Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle'', 1634:
It is a metaphor referring to the silvery, shining edges of a cloud backlit by the Sun or the Moon.
See also
*Idiom
An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...
* Felix culpa
* Silver Lining (disambiguation)
* Is the glass half empty or half full?
"Is the glass half empty or half full?", and other similar expressions such as the adjectives glass-half-full or glass-half-empty, are idioms which contrast an optimistic and pessimistic outlook on a specific situation or on the world at larg ...
References
External links
* * English-language idioms Metaphors Optimism {{English-lang-stub