Question

Familiarity breeds (Choose the correct option to complete the given proverb):

• A. Friends
• B. Contempt
• C. Condemn
• D. Foes

Hint:

Idioms and proverbs must be memorized in their exact traditional form. "Familiarity breeds contempt" dates back centuries and is a frequently tested phrase in English language examinations.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Concept: Proverbs are traditional, well-known sayings that express a practical truth or a piece of advice based on common human experience. They have fixed wording that cannot be altered or substituted with similar-sounding words.

Step 1: Explaining the established proverb.
The complete, historically established English proverb is: "Familiarity breeds contempt."

Step 2: Analyzing the meaning of the proverb.
The word contempt means the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving of scorn. The proverb implies that when you know a person, a place, or a situation extremely well over a long period, you lose your initial awe, respect, or polite distance. Excessive closeness can expose flaws, leading to carelessness, disrespect, or dislike.

Step 3: Checking procedural accuracy of options.
While options like "Friends" or "Foes" might make grammatical sense in a random sentence, they are incorrect because they change a fixed, idiomatic proverb. "Condemn" is a verb, which is grammatically incorrect in this slot because the verb "breeds" requires a noun object. Thus, "Contempt" is the only correct choice.