"For want of a nail" is a proverb, having numerous variations over several centuries, reminding that seemingly unimportant acts or omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences through a domino effect.

Poet George Herbert included it in a 1640 collection of aphorisms as "For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost." Benjamin Franklin, in his 1758 Poor Richard's Almanack, recorded a longer version:

"The Want of a Nail" is a Phildelphia soul-influenced pop song by Todd Rundgren featuring Bobby Womack, released on his 1989 album Nearly Human. The track features a prominent brass section and gospel backing vocals, with lyrics based on the above poem and focusing on how small, missed details can lead to major, devastating consequences in relationships, reflecting the themes of the traditional proverb.

History The proverb is found in a number of forms.

Predecessors include the following:

Middle High German (positively formulated): ("The wise tell us that a nail keeps a shoe, a shoe a horse, a horse a man, a man a castle, that can fight.") ("For sparing a little cost often a man has lost the large coat for the hood.") Middle French: (Modern French: ; English: "By just one nail one loses a good horse.") (c 1507 Jean Molinet, Faictz Dictz D., v768).Proverbs: For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the man was lost at answers.comDictionnaire du Moyen Français (retrieved 20100402) "The French-men haue a military prouerbe; 'The losse of a nayle, the losse of an army'. The want of a nayle looseth the shooe, the losse of shooe troubles the horse, the horse indangereth the rider, the rider breaking his ranke molests the company, so farre as to hazard the whole Army". (1629 Thomas Adams (clergyman), "The Works of Thomas Adams: The Sum of His Sermons, Meditations, And Other Divine And Moral Discourses", p. 714")

Further reading

Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, June 1758, The Complete Poor Richards Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377 Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford 1951, p. 324

References