Penny wise and pound foolish.
Meaning: Obsessing over minor savings while making careless decisions about major expenses creates net financial loss.
Origin: The earliest known use is in Francis Meres's 1598 English version of a Spanish devotional book, and Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) made "penny wise, pound foolish" familiar. It describes someone careful over small sums and careless over large ones.
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From our tongue twisters
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- 赤パジャマ黄パジャマ茶パジャマ (Aka pajama, ki pajama, cha pajama) — A rapid-fire drill on colour words; the syllable shift from aka/ki/cha trips the tongue b…
- 坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた (Bōzu ga byōbu ni jōzu ni bōzu no e o kaita) — A sustained 'b' and long-vowel drill — bōzu/byōbu/jōzu demand precise mouth control.