Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

the good die young

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.89 in modern English

Syllables: the -good die y-oung
IPA

25

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

3

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

proverb

Well-regarded people who are morally upright, kind, and beneficent tend to die at a younger age than do most people.

Example Sentences

""You'll live," put in Mr. Pedagog, with a chuckle. "The good die young.""
"[I]t is the men and women with vices who have ruled the world. The good die young because there is no useful work for them to do."
""The good die young," is a favorite, sardonic saying of General Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquess of Tenerife, Grandee of Spain, long famed among U. S. citizens as "Butcher Weyler" because of his ruthless military governorship of Cuba, prime cause of the Spanish-American war (1896-97). In Madrid last week the doughty "Butcher," now aged 91, arose fully convalescent from a sickness during which Death had been expected hourly for weeks. "Pah!" growled he. "My doctors, my family had no cause for alarm. I had only pneumonia!""
"A 28-year-old pregnant woman was killed and a second woman was seriously injured on Friday afternoon when a driver, apparently intoxicated and following the women as they walked down a Midtown Manhattan street, lost control of a supermarket maintenance van. . . . “It hasn’t really sunk in,” said Ms. Ramos’s sister. . . . “The good die young,” she said."

Etymology

Variant of the Latin Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur ("whom the gods love dies young"), from Plautus's Bacchides, apparently adapted from a line in Dis Exapaton (The Double Deceiver) by Menander.

Inflected Forms

only the good die young (alternative)

Phrases

nice guys finish last a creaking door hangs longest

Frequently Paired Words

nice guys finish last a creaking door hangs longest

Questions

What does the good die young mean?: Well-regarded people who are morally upright, kind, and beneficent tend to die at a younger age than do most people.
Where does the good die young come from?: Variant of the Latin Quem di diligunt adulescens moritur ("whom the gods love dies young"), from Plautus's Bacchides, apparently adapted from a line in Dis Exapaton (The Double Deceiver) by Menander.

How to pronounce the good die young

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