Meaning
A humorous or ironic remark made when two people come up with the same idea at the same time. The compliment is usually tongue-in-cheek, since the two 'great minds' are typically ordinary people, and it typically appears as a jokey one-line tag after the coincidence is noticed. Almost always jocular or ironic, normally as a quick spoken response rather than in formal writing. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The thought is much older than the wording. The Phrase Finder traces the underlying idea to Dabridgcourt Belchier's play Hans Beer-Pot (1618), 'Good wits doe jumpe', where 'jump' is an obsolete verb meaning to agree or coincide exactly; Laurence Sterne still used that older form ('Great wits jump') in Tristram Shandy in 1761. The earliest print example of the modern wording found by the Phrase Finder is from 1816, in Carl Theodor von Unlanski's 'The woful history of the unfortunate Eudoxia'. The mocking extension 'fools seldom differ' is a twentieth-century accretion, first recorded by the Phrase Finder in a list of proverbs in Canada's Leader-Post of 1 February 1932; Belchier, often credited with the full line, wrote only the short 1618 form. Wiktionary labels the whole saying humorous, which matches its almost exclusively ironic modern use.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- great minds run in the same gutters
- great minds think alike; fools seldom differ
Usage Examples
- You booked the same train as me - great minds think alike.
- We both put the same obscure film at the top of our lists; great minds think alike, apparently.
- When she suggested the rooftop for the photo shoot, I had to laugh: great minds think alike.