The article deals with the issues related to the study of proverbs in modern linguistics. With all the widespread use of proverbs, this linguistic sign can be attributed to the most complex phenomena of the language. Scholars note the extreme diffi culty of giving a concise and comprehensive defi nition of a proverb. Each of the scholars identifi es in a proverb diff erent aspects, considering them to be decisive. The article in chronological order provides a brief overview of the most important defi nitions of proverb in Russian and foreign paremiology. The work shows the main attributes of proverbs scholars bring to the forefront. Minimalism of proverbs allows us to consider them as a very compact container or packaging of human experience. Among the generally recognized attributes of proverbs are: widespread use among the people, anonymity, stability, brevity, completeness of the phrase, recommendatory character, generalization of experience, metaphoricity and fi gurative meaning. Foreign scholars bring to the fore the metaphorical nature of the paremias, their traditionalism. To understand the meaning of proverbs, certain linguistic and cultural knowledge is necessary. Therefore, in the compilation of proverbial collections it is necessary to provide them with linguistic and cultural comments. And such dictionaries have appeared recently. The article also discusses the proverbial transforms, antiproverbs, mentioning the works of contemporary Russian and foreign paremiologists devoted to antiproverbs. The correlation and use of proverbs and antiproverbs in modern discourse is an interesting topic for further research.