Episode 311: A Watched Pot Never Boils

This week Shauna and Dan explore the phrase, "A Watched Pot Never Boils". Bonus: Nom de plumes, neurodivergent characters from the 1870s, and time being all wimbly wombly

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Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast
Episode 311: A Watched Pot Never Boils
Record Date: March 15, 2026
Air Date: March 18, 2026

Intro

Shauna:
Welcome to Bunny Trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase. 

I’m Shauna Harrison

Dan:
And I’m Dan Pugh

Each week we take an idiom or other turn of phrase and try to tell the story from its entry into the English language, to how it’s used today.

Opening Hook
Have you ever been super hungry and something in the kitchen smells oh-so-good. Maybe it’s a Sunday roast, or grandma’s cookies, or that amazing vegan lasagna that everyone raves about. You keep going back into the kitchen, checking on it every 5 minutes, mouth watering with anticipation each time. 
But it STILL. ISN’T. DONE. It feels like it is taking forever. Alas, one must remember, a watched pot never boils. 

Meaning
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a watched pot never boils means:

Quote
Time feels longer when you're waiting for something to happen
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pot_n1?tab=meaning_and_use#92297015 

Though the way we say it now isn’t how it always was…

1778
The Oxford English Dictionary notes the first time the phrase is attested is in a 1778 letter by Benjamin Franklin while he was in Paris.

Quote 
I was very Hungry; it was so late; ‘a watched pot is slow to boil,’ as Poor Richard says.
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pot_n1?tab=meaning_and_use#92297015 

You’ll notice this first use of the phrase is “slow to boil” and not “never boils”. It feels like a difference without much distinction. But knowing the phrase began as “slow to boil” might have been helpful for Michael Stevens, a youtuber known as Vsauce, who in 2019 spent over 50 minutes watching a pot, only to determine that it will, in fact, eventually boil. But I think he and anyone who watched the video would agree it was slow.
https://youtu.be/whjJNaEZKIM  

The other thing to note here is that Benjamin Franklin ascribes the phrase to a person called, “Poor Richard”. But about this quote, Gary Martin of the website phrases.org.uk notes:

Quote
Actually, Franklin ought to have written “as Poor Richard might have said”, as the proverb isn’t found in any of the Poor Richard almanacs. That’s a moot point however, Franklin and Poor Richard being one and the same.
End Quote
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/watched-pot-never-boils.html

So, I guess spoiler alert for this 250 year old concept, but Richard Saunders was a pseudonym, a pen name, for Benjamin Franklin used in his Poor Richard’s Almanack which was published from 1732 to 1758. But just ascribing something to Poor Richard doesn’t necessarily mean that Benjamin Franklin coined it. In fact, he didn’t even write many of the witty sayings that appeared in Poor Richard’s Almanack. Jill Lepore wrote in a 2008 article titled, “What Poor Richard cost Benjamin Franklin” in The New Yorker magazine and website, saying:

Quote
Franklin didn’t write most of Poor Richard’s proverbs. By his own guess, he wrote perhaps one out of every ten; the rest he found in books, especially anthologies like Thomas Fuller’s 1732 “Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British.” But Franklin was the kind of literary alchemist who could turn drivel into haiku. Fuller had written, “A Man in Passion rides a horse that runs away with him.” Franklin outpaced him: A Man in a Passion rides a mad Horse. Where Titan Leeds, the author of “The American Almanack,” blathered, “Many things are wanting to them that desire many things,” Poor Richard pegged it: If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
End Quote
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/01/28/the-creed 

However, as Gary Martin noted, our phrase doesn’t actually appear in any of the almanack’s issues, so this one is probably safe to ascribe to Franklin, unless other evidence comes along.

Let’s look at some other examples of the phrase,

1808
I found this first one in Bell's Weekly Messenger out of London, England dated 24 July 1808. It is noted to be an excerpt from Mr. Cobbett’s Political Register the week prior. Mr. Cobbett is credited as the author. The article is about the benefits of paying a good wage over giving money to charity that would benefit the workers. He makes the case that one should pay the workers well and allow them to do what they want with the money, rather than give it in charity and dictate how it might be spent. Though he notes there are some exceptions:

Quote
If I had a labourer who was to become a notorious drunkard, I would dismiss him, because it would be my duty strongly to shew my disapprobation of so beastly a vice; but after a good deal of observation, I am thoroughly convinced that, as a ‘watched pot never boils,’ so a watched penny never breeds.
End Quote
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001286/18080724/016/0005
https://archive.org/details/cobbettspolitica14cobb/page/38/mode/2up?q=%22watched+pot%22  

Which is interesting, because the phrase quickly became “never boils” over “slow to boil” in most applications for likely no more reason than ease of saying it. 

1851
You’ve probably heard the phrase used as “kettle” instead of “pot”. I was surprised when the first time I could find “Watched kettle” appear was in the 1851 work Jewish Perseverance, which is an autobiography of M. Lissack. This is the second edition. I couldn’t find the first edition anywhere, so it is possible the phrase was used there, too. But this quote is a contemporary account that shows “pot” and “kettle” meant exactly the same thing.   

Quote
But, alas! the more impatiently we look forward to a thing, the longer it keeps us waiting, or, as the homely English proverb expresses it, “A watched kettle never boils.”
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jewish_Perseverance_Or_The_Jew_at_Home_a/rUFDAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22watched+kettle%22&pg=PA143&printsec=frontcover 

1873
This one is from the novel Not Easily Jealous by Iza Duffus Hardy dated 1873.

In this, Eva is watching on the balcony on a chilly September night in Paris, to see if Reynold Murray would make an appearance. Her sister wants her to come back inside.

Quote
You had much better come in and sit down quietly, Eva, instead of catching cold out there,” said Hester, the eldest, with a matronly air. “A watched pot never boils.”
“That’s one of the false proverbs, Hetty,” observed Emilia, the third sister. “If you watch the pot patiently it must boil at some time.” 
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Not_Easily_Jealous/pNIyAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22watched+pot%22&pg=PA17&printsec=frontcover

I love this literal take on it, which would not be necessary if the phrase was “slow to boil”. Still, Emilia goes on to note that her knowledge of science is limited, but she would be willing to read up on steam and fire in the Encyclopedia to determine the circumstances in which a pot of water over a fire fails to boil. 

1901
In the 1901 work Stray Leaves from a Border Garden, Mary Pamela Ellis Milne-Home used the phrase in the “Poor Richard” way, writing:

Quote
An old woman fell in love with a Mandarin Orange-tree, one of a number - four, I think- reared expressly for the bazaar by Boy. Pips had been planted and watched, and although a watched pot is proverbially slow to boil, two tiny green twin-leaves at last appeared. 
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Stray_Leaves_from_a_Border_Garden/j6c1AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22watched+pot%22&pg=PA231&printsec=frontcover 

1922
The phrase was used in a fun way in the July 1922 edition of the Acetylene Journal, an annual publication devoted to oxy-acetylene welding and cutting and acetylene lighting, edited by Harold W. Cook. It is used as part of a caption for a drawn image that depicts two ladies standing in a kitchen, bickering. You can see a covered pot overflowing in the background. The caption reads:

Quote
I no a watched pot never boils, but if you don’t watch it, it boils over, wich is wurse.*
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Journal_of_Acetylene_Lighting/WyD5cCFzmuoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22watched+pot%22&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcover 
*No (Know), wich (which), and wurse (worse) are all spelled as they were in the original caption

1924
One more, The Watched Pot is a play published in 1924 by Charles Maude, based on Hector Munro’s work. Munro was better known under his pen name Saki. Saki died in 1916. The professional premier in 1930 featured a 25 year-old Henry Fonda. Here’s the synopsis from Brendan Moir:

Quote
“The Watched Pot" is a three-act comedic play written by Saki in collaboration with Charles Maude. It centers around the inhabitants of Briony manor either scheming or enacting the scheme of marrying the only inheritor of the estate, Trevor Bavvel, before his tyrant of a mother, Hortensia Bavvel, becomes aware of the covert usurpment of her power. The play humorously explores the pressure placed on everyone in the manor as various potential brides are paraded before him, while Trevor remains indifferent and hesitant. While, "the watched Pot never boils," lighting a fire under these societal expectations of Edwardian society makes the resulting action of this play as dynamic as a mountain of gunpowder.
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3X466-0cRI 

Up next we have several modern uses to cover and we’ll get to those, right after we say thank you to our sponsors.

A Quick Thank You
Shauna:
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Modern Uses

1999
A Watched Pot: How We Experience Time is a 1999 academic book by sociologist Michael G. Flaherty. Here is the synopsis from the publisher:

Quote
Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox?
Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal human experience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny.
A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Watched_Pot/PjETCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

2011
A Watched Pot is a song by Bleu off the 2011 B-sides album Besides. It features an acoustic guitar with backup keyboards. 

Quote
Pulled into the gravity around you
Like one of Saturn's rings
Doomed to spin around you
But never to be with you.
A watched pot 
Is all I got
A watched pot
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozYri_Oizw 
 
2011
Next up is Fractal Time: Why A Watched Kettle Never Boils by Susanne Vrobel. It was published in 2011. Here is the synopsis from the publisher:

Quote
This book provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the notion of fractal time, starting from scratch with a philosophical and perceptual puzzle. How subjective duration varies, depending on the way we embed current content into contexts, is explained.The complexity of our temporal perspective depends on the number of nestings performed, i.e. on the number of contexts taken into account. This temporal contextualization is described against the background of the notion of fractal time. Our temporal interface, the Now, is portrayed as a fractal structure which arises from the distribution of content and contexts in two dimensions: the length and the depth of time. The leitmotif of the book is the notion of simultaneity, which determines the temporal structure of our interfaces. Recent research results are described which present and discuss a number of distorted temporal perspectives. It is suggested that dynamical diseases arise from unsuccessful nesting attempts, i.e. from failed contextualization. Successful nesting, by contrast, manifests itself in a “win-win handshake” between the observer-participant and his chosen context. The answer as to why a watched kettle never boils has repercussions in many a discipline. It would be of immense interest to anyone who works in the fields of cognitive and complexity sciences, psychology and the neurosciences, social medicine, philosophy and the arts.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fractal_Time_Why_A_Watched_Kettle_Never/hLvFCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 

2016
A Watched Pot is a 2016 film by Forrest Grant Davis. Here is the synopsis from Davis’ Vimeo:

Quote
'A Watched Pot' follows Knoll Heaton over three consecutive days as he questions whether people can change, all the while meeting daily with a group of so-called friends with whom he people watches at a local coffee shop. After taking on a series of odd jobs to try and better himself and change his actions he meets Mona, a young woman also at a point in her life searching for something to change her. Does she have the strength to be honest with herself to overcome her own addictions and issues? An odd short-lived relationship forms between the often-rambling Mona and the reserved Knoll, one that seemingly begins to change Knoll. Can Mona ultimately be the spark that Knoll is so desperately in need of to recover from his past, or is Knoll simply drawn to the first person whom he feels some connection between?
End Quote
https://vimeo.com/147277330 

2018
There’s a 2018 book that I want to talk about, a dark humor book. But we’ll explore that one in our behind the scenes video, which airs every Friday on our Patreon. patreon.com/bunnytrailspod

2021
Watched Pot is a 2021 single by the Duluth-based band Woodblind. Here are the opening lines:

Quote
Watched pot
Doesn’t boil
Covered pot’s gonna boil over
Rusty pot’s gonna leak right out
Hurry up, it’s time to eat
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFmwWI8RjXE 

2026
A Watched Pot Never Boils is a roughly 30 second animated skit posted to youtube by Chris Hallbeck. It features two stick figures, one who is complaining about his download taking too long, and one who tells him to do something else because a watched pot never boils. The first guy goes on a rant about how dumb that saying is, but his download finishes as his rant is winding down, thus showing the power in the phrase. Even though you could see the ending coming after only a few seconds, it was still quite funny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvb7bIk1i6E 

Wrap Up
While researching this episode I saw several articles and videos that claimed to be “debunking” this phrase. I feel like that is either clickbait for a gullible audience, or possibly  it is impossibly naive folks like Flat Earthers or something. Because the phrase is obviously figurative, not literal. And because our version today isn’t the original one which has a small, but probably helpful difference. And it is that version that I resolve to use from now on: A watched pot is slow to boil.


Dan:
That’s about all we have for today. If you have any thoughts on the show, or pop culture references we should have included, 
reach out to us on Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod or comment on our website bunnytrailspod.com

Shauna:
It’s poll time!

Recently we asked our Patrons, When do you usually listen to podcasts?

While working out or doing chores was the winner, with during commute being a close second. 

When I have a menial task to do or organizing things is my best podcast-listening time… it keeps my mind entertained while I work. 

Mary said:
Quote
I am almost always listening to a podcast when I’m not working or posting attention to another person. If I’m doing busy work they are back on. I occasionally fall asleep to them but usually listen to the boring facts videos for that purpose. Not as boring as you might think. 
End Quote

Cheryl has a similar take:
Quote
All of the above. I listen all day.
End Quote

Dan:
I don't really listen to podcasts in the morning, but I do while working out or doing chores. It's also a frequent companion for bedtime. 

We also asked folks to share their favorite podcast that wasn’t ours.

Some of mine are: 
-This Day in History with the Retrospectors
-The Week Unwrapped
-The Besties
And my nightly comfort podcast
-Sandman Stories Presents

Heather said:

Quote
I pretty much always start the day with a podcast, and because I live alone I can sometimes listen all day long if I don't stop myself. Too many to list, but I love Stuff You Should Know, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Buried Bones, and Because Language.
End Quote

Shauna:
Jan added:
Quote
I was a remote worker for 8 years but drove around the state a few times per month, so I always had some opportunities for podcast listening. I’m starting a new job with a 20 mile one-way commute and hope to keep up on my favorites. Gastropod, Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know, Stuff You Should Know, The BBQ Central Show are several.
End Quote

If you want to take part in our silly polls, head over to the Patreon. We’d love to hear your take on our weekly poll questions! And it’s free at patreon.com/bunnytrailspod 

Outro 

Shauna:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you again next week. Until then remember, 

Together:
Words belong to their users.