Once bitten, twice shy

This expression is somewhat similar to another proverb – ‘don’t throw good money after bad‘. Both proverbs put forward the idea that, ‘after something you do works out badly, don’t do the same thing again’.

The expression is English and first began to be used around the turn of the 19th century. At that time the term ‘bite’ was used to describe any unpleasant experience.

The proverb is almost coined in this extract from Eliza Fowler Haywood’s novel The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 1751:

I have been bit once, and have made a vow never to settle upon any woman while I live, again.

The first example I can find of the precise wording of the proverb in print is from another female English novelist, Rachel Hunter, in Lady Maclairn, the victim of villany, 1806:

My wife says that the Captain is very fond of her, and if all be gold that glitters, I am to believe that he doats upon her; but once bit twice shy, is the maxim uppermost with me, when the Captain is concerned.