many a mickle makes a muckle

The original proverb many a little makes a mickle was misquoted (and first recorded in the writing of George Washington, 1793) as many a mickle makes a muckle. While mickle and muckle are, by origin, merely variants of the same (now dialect) word meaning ‘a large amount’, the misquotation spawned a misunderstanding that has now become widespread: that mickle means ‘a small amount’, and muckle means the opposite, ‘a large amount’.