On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 10:38:34 UTC+1, Asha Santon wrote:
On 15/04/15 02:51, Alan LeHun wrote:

The clout part most definitely refers to your winter clothing. There is
no doubt about that. There is still much doubt as to whether the saying
refers to the Mey flower or the month of May.

Personally, I think it is the month.

The clout does indeed refer to winter clothing and having checked with
the available ancestors (so three generations ago and three cultures),
there appears to have never been any doubt that May referred to hawthorn.

The fact that a proverb was devised would suggest there was a variable
involved in the matter (red sky at night, oak or ash, etc) and the first
of June is not a variable. The flowering of the hawthorn is.

But surely the proverb asserts variability. That is the whole point of proverbs. They are rules of thumb that fit into variables.