byword

From Middle English byword, byworde (“proverb”), from Old English bīword, bīwyrd, bīwyrde (“proverb, household word", also "adverb”), from Proto-West Germanic *bīwurdī, equivalent to by- +‎ word. Compare Latin proverbium, which byword may possibly be a translation of. Cognate with Old High German pīwurti (“proverb”). Compare also Old English bīspel (“proverb, example”), bīcwide (“byword, proverb, tale, fable”), Dutch bijwoord (“adverb”).

byword (plural bywords)

A proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.
A characteristic word or expression; a word or phrase associated with a person or group.
Someone or something that stands as an example (i.e. metonymically) for something else, by having some of that something's characteristic traits.
- 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Christmas Banquet”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:
  Illustrious unfortunates attract a wider sympathy, not because their griefs are more intense, but because, being set on lofty pedestals, they the better serve mankind as instances and bywords of calamity.
An object of notoriety or contempt, scorn or derision.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:6:
  He hath made me also a byword of the people […]
- 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
  "I know you and Harry are inseparable. Surely for that reason, if for none other, you should not have made his sister's name a by-word."
A nickname or epithet.

a proverb

Bulgarian: погово́рка (bg) f (pogovórka)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 格言 (zh) (géyán), 民諺 / 民谚 (mínyàn)
Danish: ordsprog n, talemåde c
Dutch: spreekwoord (nl)
Estonian: vanasõna
French: proverbe (fr) m
German: Sprichwort (de) n
Icelandic: málsháttur (is), máltæki
Italian: proverbio (it)
Japanese: ことわざ (ja) (kotowaza), 諺 (ja) (ことわざ, kotowaza)
Korean: 속담 (ko) (sokdam)
Macedonian: шлагворт m (šlagvort)
Maori: pepeha
Middle English: byword
Polish: dewiza (pl) f
Portuguese: dito (pt) m
Russian: погово́рка (ru) f (pogovórka), при́тча во язы́цех (ru) f (prítča vo jazýcex), прибау́тка (ru) f (pribaútka)
Spanish: refrán (es), proverbio (es), estribillo (es)
Swedish: ordspråk (sv), ordstäv (sv)

someone who stands for something else

English