Talk:pot calling the kettle black

Origin
I thought the blackness of the pot (and the kettle) were supposed to be from the heating fire beneath them? --Connel MacKenzie T C 06:36, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah. I looked it up.  Better? &mdash;Dvortygirl 06:48, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Not sure that throwing stones in glass houses is quite the same thing. It's more of a foolish behaviour isn't it? Lar 17:08, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

This is so silly, it doesn't actually give an explanation. My friend doesn't understand what it means, saying im not a kettle, shes not a pot, and neither of us are black. I came here looking for an explanation. USELESS WIKIPEDIA GUYS!

Alternative interpretation
This explanation was added to the the English Wikipedia, before the article was redirected to Wikitionary: "This comes from old times when pots and pans were generally black and kettles were generally metallic and reflective. Therefore the pot sees its black reflection in the kettle and thinks that the kettle is black." I don't know if it is more accurate than what we got here, but I thought I'd mention it. -- Anon.


 * You’re not imagining things – several sources give this alternative explanation.
 * I’ve added it, with citations.
 * Nbarth (email) (talk) 21:39, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I suspect that this is just a modern re-interpretation because kettles were never shiny when placed on coals for any length of time (I remember them!), but if the references say so, then I suppose we should report it.   D b f  i  r  s   17:14, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

hi pot, meet kettle and pot, meet kettle?
What about those phrases? Aren't they similar? Shouldn't we add them? But what do they mean? Rædi Stædi Yæti {- skriv til mig -} 05:31, 22 June 2014 (UTC)
 * They are used to indirectly call someone a hypocrite. — Ungoliant (falai) 05:35, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Link to "le dijo la sartén al cazo: ¡aparta que me tiznas!"
The link to Spanish le dijo la sartén al cazo: ¡aparta que me tiznas! in the translation section is not working for some reason. The last exclamation mark is suppressed when clicking on it. Can somebody fix it? Thanks. 95.20.78.147 11:56, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Maybe a redirect should be added here? 95.20.78.147 11:59, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
 * SemperBlotto fixed it. Thanks! 95.20.79.110 23:53, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Synonym
A synonym would be "you're one to talk": same meaning, less colorful wording. If there was an entry for this I think it would be "one's one to talk" (with "you're_one_to_talk" redirecting to this page), based on the current formatting Wiktionary has. --User123o987name (talk) 16:58, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Oh never mind, yesterday I thought it was "speak" not "talk", but today I wrote "talk" without thinking, odd. Here is what I was thinking of: --User123o987name (talk) 17:02, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
 * "you're one to speak" -> redirect -> one's_one_to_speak
 * "one's one to speak"