Русский агент
Путин - мl
NOISY - BIG HAT, ALL PRATTLE
"A congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building," General Kelly said.
In an interview on CNN's "New Day" Friday morning, Wilson alleged that "empty barrel" is a "racist term." She didn't explain why.
All of which made me curious: Where does the phrase "an empty barrel makes the most noise" come from? And is there any sort of racial component to those origins? Or to its current usage?
A search through the Internet shows that the origin of the line is somewhat fuzzy, although it is commonly credited to Plato in this form: "An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers."
In the 15th century, a translation of "The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man" done by John Lydgate contains a variation on that theme: "Or by som noyse in cómpleynyng/A voydë vessel, pype, or tonne."
The phrase, or an iteration of it, was used in Shakespeare's work. In "Henry V," a character says this: "It's true what they say: 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.'"
Then there is physics.
An empty glass - if you tap on it - makes a louder noise than a glass filled with water.
No matter the origins, all of these phrases mean the same thing: The loudest people often know the least. Or in the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
Seeking to dig deeper, I reached out to Missouri University of Science and Technology professor Gerald Leonard Cohen, a widely recognized expert on etymology.
Cohen didn't know the answer, but he added me to a listserve of fellow word experts - yes, this exists and is super cool - known as the American Dialect Society, who added a few more bits of context. Most notably, Ben Zimmer, the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the chair of the New Words Committee within the ADS, pointed me to Plutarch's "Morals," which includes the line: "Talkative people resemble empty vessels, and go about making much noise."
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/20/politics/empty-barrel-wilson-kelly/index.html