not born yesterday
Preserved but no longer current.
Not to be taken in; worldly wise. Poets are born, not made. One can never be a poet by mere training or education if one has been born without the * 'divine afflatus." A translation of the Latin phrase Poeta nas- citur nonfit, of which an extension is Nascimur poet&fimus orator 'es, we are born poets, we are made orators.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “not born yesterday” mean?
Not to be taken in; worldly wise. Poets are born, not made. One can never be a poet by mere training or education if one has been born without the * 'divine afflatus." A translation of the Latin phrase Poeta nas- citur nonfit, of which an extension is Nascimur poet&fimus orator 'es, we are born poets, we are made orators.
Is “not born yesterday” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.