when in Rome
- 1One should adapt to and follow the customs of whatever place or group one finds oneself in.
Like a traveler who picks up the rhythms of each new city instead of clinging to the habits of home.
He never wears a suit at home, but when in Rome, he dressed up for the formal dinner.
When in Rome, the travelers learned to greet everyone with a kiss on both cheeks.
Note
A proverb cut off halfway: the full saying is "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," and only the opening clause survives. Rhetoric calls this omission anapodoton, a sentence that sets up its condition and never delivers the main clause. Speakers trust the listener to finish it, so the fragment can stand alone as a complete remark or slip into a sentence as a clause of its own.
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Origin
A shortened form (an anapodoton) of the proverb "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."