Part 18: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
If Susan says that Henry's criticism of Rachael is like a pot calling the kettle black, she is accusing him of being a hypocrite. It probably means that Henry has criticized Rachael for a fault that he also has.
Here are a few examples:
(1) I can't believe you are annoyed because I'm late. It's like a pot calling the kettle black.
(2) My brother is a typical case of a pot calling the kettle black. He accuses me of being lazy, but he spends the whole day on the couch watching TV.
The idiom dates back to the days before electric or gas burners. People cooked by setting a pot or kettle on a charcoal or coal stove, and the soot accumulated in the pot or kettle caused it to turn black.
The earliest use of idiom is in Thomas Shelton's 1620 English translation of Don Quixote, a 1605 Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman who is so obsessed with the chivalrous virtues extolled in books that he resolves to pick up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and slay the evil.
Quixote is irritated by constant criticism by his servant in one of the scenes, so he tells him, "You are like the pot that said to the kettle, 'You are black'."
