In this paper, I would like to discuss the diversity and productivity of English proverbs listed in Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2015). In this dictionary, 72% of the proverbs have origins in British and American English, while the rest of the proverbs have different origins in many other countries, which include five Japanese proverbs. As for the productivity, we notice there are some similar patterns used in proverbs. In addition, there are some parodies and variations as well as newly born proverbs. This handy dictionary shows us that English proverbs can have more foreign based proverbs and can create new proverbs one after another in the future.
