What we Gave we Have
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
The epitaph on "the Good Earl of Courtenay" (see Gibbons Decline and Fall, vol. vi, Ch. 61) :— What wee gave, wee have; What wee spent, wee had; What wee left, wee lost.
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 “What we Gave we Have” mean?
The epitaph on "the Good Earl of Courtenay" (see Gibbons Decline and Fall, vol. vi, Ch. 61) :— What wee gave, wee have; What wee spent, wee had; What wee left, wee lost.
Is “What we Gave we Have” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.