silver lining

An element of hope or a redeeming quality in an otherwise bad situation, as in The rally had a disappointing turnout, but the silver lining was that those who came pledged a great deal of money . This metaphoric term is a shortening of Every cloud has a silver lining, in turn derived from John Milton's Comus (1634): "A sable cloud turns forth its silver lining on the night."

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Vibeke	-	Danish, Norwegian
Thamar	-	Biblical Greek, Biblical Latin
&Thorn;ÓRa	-	Ancient Scandinavian, Icelandic
HellÄ	HEL-la	Finnish
Anstiss	['ænstis]
Tesni	-	Welsh