pride wenteth before a fall

pride wenteth before a fall

1. (nonstandard, pseudo-archaic, hypercorrect) Alternative form of pride comes before a fall
   • 1968, Robert Welch, American Opinion, XI, page 59:

     By the time I reached the Navy my love of steam preceded me, and I became the stoker for a rickety steam cutter inherited from the Maine. Pride wenteth before a fall; I put the slice bar through one of the cutter’s tubes — and lost my job in a hasty exit over the side.

   • 1979, Blossom Elfman, The Sister Act, page 44:

     Where was my pride? Pride wenteth before a fall. The hell with pride.

   • 2007, David Renner, Memoirs of a Fool, I, page 171:

     Brock’s foot touched the plate just as he and Freehan’s mitt with the ball in it met. Normally, a tie was given to the runner, but the umpire must have believed that pride wenteth before a fall and called Brock out.

Pride wenteth before a fall is formed as a pseudo-archaic past-tense version of pride goeth before a fall; the grammatical past-tense contemporary would be pride went before a fall (which does not sound archaic).