French originFaute d'un point, Martin perdit son âne
Meaning: A tiny mistake can cost you dearly.
Literally: For want of a dot, Martin lost his donkey
Example: “Une virgule mal placée dans le contrat nous a coûté cher : faute d'un point, Martin perdit son âne.” — A misplaced comma in the contract cost us dearly: for want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
Equivalents in English, Japanese, German, Italian, and Chinese
English: For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.
Japanese: 千丈の堤も蟻の一穴から (Senjō no tsutsumi mo ari no ikketsu kara) (literally: Even a thousand-fathom dyke collapses from a single ant hole)
German: Kleine Ursachen, große Wirkungen (literally: Small causes, great effects)
Italian: Per un chiodo si perde un ferro, e per un ferro un cavallo (literally: For a nail a shoe is lost, and for a shoe a horse)
Chinese: 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 (Qiān lǐ zhī dī, kuì yú yǐ xué) (literally: A thousand-mile dyke collapses through an ant hole)
Origin: The story goes that Martin, abbot of Asello, had a welcome carved over his gate, porta patens esto, nulli claudaris honesto (be open, gate, closed to no honest man), but the carver put the stop after nulli, so it told the gate to open to no one, and Martin lost his abbey. The donkey is usually explained by the abbey's name, which sounds like Latin asellus, a little donkey. Neither the story nor the pun is confirmed, and other explanations exist, such as a lawsuit lost over a misplaced punctuation mark.
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- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. An 's' / 'si' minefield.
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