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There is a lid for every pot is a saying that essentially means "There is someone for everyone", most commonly used in the context of romantic relationships. Variations include "Every pot has a lid" and "Every pot has a cover".

Proverb
there's a lid for every pot

Somewhere in the world there is a compatible romantic partner for everybody.
Wiktionary

Many languages have the same expression:

  • French: Chaque pot à son couvercle
  • Italian: Ogni pentola ha il suo coperchio
  • German: Auf jeden Topf passt ein Deckel
  • Dutch: Op elk potje past een dekseltje
  • Arabic: طنجرة ولقت غطاها
  • Afrikaans: Elke pot het sy deksel
  • Japanese: 割れ鍋に閉じ蓋
  • Spanish: Siempre hay un roto para un descosido (which translates to "There is always a ripped one for a torn one")

When was this expression first used in English, and what is its ultimate origin (the language it originally came from)?

Note: I've searched extensively but couldn't find a credible source on the origin. While some references mention Old Dutch and Yiddish as the ultimate origin, I haven't found any authoritative confirmation.

Eric Partridge makes an attempt in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, though he's not certain about the origin, but it could go back at least to the 16th century:

[there's a lid for every pot is applied particularly to 'seemingly strange marriages and generally in the sense "there's always some kind of solution possible". Also, somewhat sexual. I cannot date this, but I heard it from a German Catholic [American] from Southern Illinois' (A.B., 1979). It's prob. safe to place it as 'late C19-20' and to classify it as a 'semi-proverbial'. That, admittedly, was a guess, but I did find it richly confirmed, exemplified, parallelled, in Stevenson's Book of Quotations, Maxims and Familiar Sayings, 1948, at p. 1427; and it goes back to at least C16.]

I couldn't find any references in the archived version of Stevenson's Book of Quotations, Maxims and Familiar Sayings as well.

I couldn't find any Sumerian proverbs on the topic either—though I imagine ancient Sumerians weren't exactly exchanging relationship wisdom as much as we do today. The source I've checked is The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature - ETCSL by University of Oxford.

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  • Have you tried Google Books? (It seems too obvious a saying to have a single unique origin but you may find an earlier occurrence.) Commented Mar 19 at 9:01
  • @StuartF Yes, I've tried Google Books, but it's not easy to search due to the many variations. Similar origin questions about proverbs have been answered by identifying the earliest occurrences in some older languages. Commented Mar 19 at 9:05
  • Not all expressions can be found to have an exact origin. Commented Mar 19 at 14:42
  • It isn't profound; it's obvious. Someone could come along and say, "Oh Look, I found this is in an Akkadian tablet". Would that "prove" origin? How exactly does one actually prove origin? Similar expressions may spring up around the same time. Commented Mar 19 at 14:52
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    @Lambie I'm not sure why you keep making comments as if we never ask origin questions on EL&U, especially since I've seen you write similar comments on my questions. People here answer with the earliest written evidence. For example, in the linked question about the origin of the proverb 'A closed mouth catches no flies,' it was difficult to trace the Sumerian origin, but someone still managed to do so. As for this proverb, it likely isn't that old, given that it relates to relationships. How many well-researched questions do we get? Appreciation is not difficult. Commented Mar 19 at 15:03

2 Answers 2

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In Volume 32 of Collected Works of Erasmus (1989), the translator and annotator R.A.B. Mynors notes as follows, with reference to adage 72,

[Erasmus] might have elaborated on the subtitle: 'the dish (?) has found its cup (?), of married couples.'

The subtitle in question is of one of Varro's Menippean Satires as found in the work of Nonius Marcellus, a grammarian of the 4th century who quoted the satires in his Latin dictionary; the subtitle itself as found in Nonius is in Greek. This suggests (but only suggests) that the original language of the adage was Latin or Greek.

Adage 72 is Dignum patella operculum, which Mynors translates as "The cover is worthy of such a cup".

Thus, possible early sources of the adage in English, in one version or another, include translations of Erasmus and adoptions or alterations of the adages from Erasmus by learned writers in English familiar with Erasmus's Adages or familiar with Nonius Marcellus's Latin dictionary.

Equally, given that the 9th century manuscripts of Nonius Marcellus "seem to be connected to Tours and the Loire valley in France" (Pearse, 2011), the adage may have reached English from French translations, adoptions or alterations.

It is noteworthy that Mynors appears to believe Erasmus might be familiar with Nonius or Varro. See the context of adage 72 and the note on it (both linked in the foregoing answer), which provide further leads (Jerome?, Otto?, Tilley?) that I don't have the ambition to unpick right now.

Further research uncovered a version of the proverb in Balzac's Le Cousin Pons (1847). An 1886 English translation by Katharine Prescott Wormeley renders it as

There ain't no ugly cover that hasn't its pot, as the proverb says.

(p 149 bottom).

[Possibly of interest: all of the volumes of the authoritative translation of Erasmus's Adages are available at the Internet Archive with a free login and checkout. Please support that enterprise, Internet Archive, if you can.]

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  • Thank you for answering this difficult question, JEL! You've uncovered an earlier variation I wasn't aware of, connected to Erasmus’s Adages and Nonius Marcellus. Good to see your answers on origin questions! Commented Mar 20 at 7:27
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    Thank you for the fine question, @ermanen. I've added another finding. Commented Mar 21 at 4:38
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The idea that the saying entered English sometime in the early 20th century via Low German (in this case Pennsylvanian Dutch, which is German) is supported by

Sketch of Its Origin, with the Proceedings and Addresses at ... Pennsylvania-German Society • 1929 • ‎Snippet view

Page 35

  1. 'S is en dekl f'r all hafe

There's a lid for every pot

Es ist ein deckel für jeden topf.

Page 88

There's a lid for every pot , no matter how crooked ; there is a peg for every hole . There is no pot so ugly that a cover cannot be found for it . Liv 151 .

And the Google Ngram

enter image description here

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  • Thanks, Greybeard! The Pennsylvania-German reference offers an interesting insight into the phrase's possible origin. Although there seem to be earlier variations as well, it's still very helpful. Commented Mar 20 at 14:37

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