Clinton to offer debt forgiveness to young entrepeneurs in the form of deferred

[Igel]

9. Ancient notion?

I grew up with "a man's work is sun to sun, a woman's work is never done". My mother said her mother often said it, and that was the '30s. Some claim it dates at least to the American Revolution.

It on occasion shows up as "a man's work is dawn to dusk, a woman's work is never done," or with "mother" substituted for "woman", but those are certainly later changes. "Sun to sun" is usually called "archaic," which is a bit worse than "obsolete", and as sayings accrue archaic language they're "repaired" to make sense to newer generations. "Woman" originally also had the meaning "wife," and the wife had to get the man fed and out the door, feed him when he came back at dusk, and deal with the kids. Single women, not so much. It's been a while since that meaning wasn't archaic.

But the expression "sun to sun" has to be younger than the Great Vowel Shift, only after which could "done" and "sun" rhyme. And it's most often true in an agrarian society. If you're a scribe or worked indoors, you could usually work by lamp.