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What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)

For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (9 children)

In Swedish there is

"Now the boiled pork is fried", meaning sometging has gone too far

" be on the cinnamon", to be drunk

"Put the legs on your back", to run

"You are out biking", you are missing the point

"Pay[back] for old cheese", to get revenge

" bear-favour", is a favour that gives bad results

"Now you'll see other buns", things will get rough

" there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go

"Satan and his aunt", all kinds of people/everyone

"Good day, axe-handle", something like saying "yeah, you dumbfuck" after getting a nonsense repley from someone

"In only the brass", to be naked

"Show where the cupboard will stand", to firmly make a decision

"You cupboard", miss the point, being stupid

" shit in the blue cupboard", to make a mistake

Edit: forgot a good one:

"Get your thumb out of your ass", to stop doing nothing and start doing something

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

I thought "be on the cinnamon" was going to be my favorite, but the list just kept getting better. I think you ended on the best.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

björntjänst bear-favor: From a French fable (L’Ours et l’Amateur des jardins by Jean de La Fontaine) in which a tame bear wants to do his master a favor by hitting the fly who sat down on the master's forehead, but hits the fly so hard that the master too is killed.

Interesting

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some Norwegian politicians have completely ruined this expression, and now use it to mean "a really big favor".

It's almost as annoying as when Americans say they "could care less" when they mean the opposite.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

" there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go

My sides went into orbit. How else would someone entertain themself, when this expression was coined? TV is a recent invention, after all...

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Fun question! There's an abundance in Vietnamese. Usually used by parents and/or old folk (I can hear it now...)

Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi — Literal translation "cat praises cat's long tail." A way of expressing narcissism.

Uống nước nhớ nguồn — Literal translation is "drink water, remember roots." So you'd pause, reflect, and remember where you came from.

Gieo gió gặt bão— Literal translation is "sow winds, weather storms." A way of saying "you reap what you sow."

Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim — Literal translation "Perseverance grinds iron some day into needles." Used like "practice makes perfect."

Trời có mắt — Literal translation "Heaven has eyes." Usually used when someone's wronged, but don't worry - heaven is watching.

Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng — Literal translation "near the ink it blackens, near the lamp it lights." You're influenced by those you're around.

Nuôi ong tay áo — Literal translation "raise bees in shirtsleeve." As in "to nurture a snake in one's bosom," kindness will be met by betrayal.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Catalan:

Enfilar-se per les parets — To be climbing the walls — To be very angry and / or nervous.

Ficar-se de peus a la galleda — To get one's feet in the bucket — To say or do something inconvenient and / or embarrassing.

N'hi ha per llogar-hi cadires — [Roughly translated] You could rent chairs for this — Refers to something very noteworthy or interesting.

(Anar a) canviar l'aigua de les olives — To (go) change the olives' water — To (leave for a quick) piss.

Descobrir la sopa d'all — To discover garlic soup — To believe you've discovered or come up with something that's commonly known (except, apparently, to you).

(Estar) tocat del bolet — (To be, or have been) touched/hit on the mushroom — (To be) insane.

Fer figa — To do or make fig (literally, the fruit, or figuratively, the vulva) — To become weaker, unable to perform one's intended function.

Fer el préssec — To do or make the peach — To put yourself in a ridiculous situation.

Fer uns ulls com unes taronges — To open one's eyes like oranges — To look very surprised or interested.

Fer pinya — To make (like a) pinecone — To work together for a common cause.

Partir peres — To split up pears — To break up a relationship (sentimental, professional, or otherwise).

Remenar les cireres — To mix up the cherries — To be the person who makes the decisions, to be in control (in a partnership, organisation...). Also, Tallar el bacallà — To cut up the cod. Also, Tenir la paella pel mànec — To hold the pan by the handle.

Somiar truites — To dream of omelettes — To believe things that will hardly be possible to be possible. And, by extension, Somiatruites — Omelette dreamer — Someone who regularly does that; an extremely unreasonable optimist.

Suar la cansalada — To sweat (the) bacon — To do very hard tiring work or exercise.

Aixecar la camisa — To lift (someone's) shirt — To scam, misdirect, or lie (to someone).

Això són figues d'un altre paner — These are figs from a different container — This is a completely different matter (than what we were talking about).

Bon vent i barca nova! — Good wind and a new boat! — Farewell to someone or something you'd rather never see again.

(Això és) bufar i fer ampolles — (This is) (like) blowing and making bottles — Refers to something that's very easy to do or achieve. Can be used literally or ironically.

Caure-hi de quatre potes / peus — To fall in with all four legs / feet — To fall for a scam or lie.

(Ser) cornut i pagar el beure — (To be a) cuckold (literally, to have horns) and pay for the drinks — To voluntarily sacrifice for others who take advantage of you.

(Donar) gat per llebre — (To give) a cat pretending it's a hare — To lie, scam, or misdirect. To substitute a lower quality product for what you agreed to provide.

El més calent és a l'aigüera — The hottest stuff is in the sink — Work hasn't even started yet on whatever endeavour we're talking about.

En un tres i no res — In a three and nought — In a very short time.

La mare dels ous — The mother of the eggs — The main cause or reason (of/for something).

Lligar els gossos amb llonganisses — To tie up the dogs with sausages — To be wealthy.

Fer mans i mànigues — To do/make hands and sleeves — To put as much effort as possible into something.

Fer un riu — To make a river — To piss.

Veure el llautó — To notice the brass — To notice the concealed truth behind appearances. (Literally, it refers to noticing something is made of a poorer quality metal than it's claimed to be.)

Tenir mà esquerra — To have (sic) left hand — To be good at diplomacy.

Un orgue de gats — An organ (musical instrument) made out of cats — A very noisy and chaotic room or place.

And there's plenty more, but I've already spent more time than I could afford typing these.

Oh, but also, not exactly an idiom, maybe, but something I've always thought says a lot about Catalan worldview: the Catalan word for pigsty is cort. Which is exactly the same word (and with the same meaning) as the Catalan word for court. As in royal court.

Maybe that's where Orwell got his idea for Napoleon & co to be pigs..?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (2 children)

"o que é um peido pra quem já está cagado?"

What's a fart to someone who already shit himself?

If you're already 30 minutes late, don't speed recklessly to save 3 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Haha! The equivalent in Ireland (not sure if it's used in other English speaking countries) is "may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb"

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Icelandic is full of fun idioms:
"He's totally outside driving" = he's very incorrect about something, possibly crazy
"It's hard to grab his horns" = He's very headstrong and stubborn
"A wave rarely comes alone" = If something bad happens, usually a lot of bad things happen at once
"He hasn't peed into the salty sea" = he's young an inexperienced
"He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag" = he's untrustworthy
"I totally come from the mountains" = I'm out of the loop, unaware of recent developments

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

"He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag" = he's untrustworthy

Danish has this also, just phrased like "He's not got clean flour in the bag"

Maybe it's from common heritage

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A wave rarely comes alone

An equivalent idiom in English for this one might be "When it rains, it pours"

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

In most languages, "get well soon" is expressed as good wishes. In Russian, they use the imperative form, so it is like an order or a command. It's буд здоров(а), which is literally "be healthy" as a command. They also use it as "bless you" after sneezing. (For those whoe can't read Cyrillic, in Latin it's approximately said like "bud zdarov(a)". The -a suffix is the female version, without it is male.)

In French, the expression "du coup" (it means something like "therefore" or "so" or "thus") can be used in place of like 10 other expressions.

  • Ainsi
  • Donc
  • Alors
  • Tout à coup
  • Soudainement
  • En conclusion
  • Si je comprends bien
  • De ce fait
  • Ce qui fait que
  • En conséquence
  • Consequémment

Is all being replaced by "du coup".

In German, capitalisation matters. In contrast with many other languages, nouns must be capitalised, or it changes the meaning. For example:

  • Helft den Armen vögeln
  • Helft den armen Vögeln

Notice how only the capitalisation changed. The first sentence means "help the poor to fuck" while the second sentence means "help those poor birds".

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

This is English, but Canada specific as far as I know.

"Fucking the dog" - means to slack off, particularly at work.

"I fucked the dog all day at work today" basically means I got nothing done.

It is distinct from "screw the pooch" which means to fuck something up badly.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Turkish: "Niye böyle bakıyorsun? Karadeniz'deki gemilerin mi battı?"

-> "Why are you looking like that (Why such a face)? Did your ships sink in the black sea?"

It was already my favourite before 2022, but hell has it become ever more so then. Slava Ukraini!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Isn't there also a saying like "fucked by a polar bear in the desert", meaning being unlucky?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

In Norwegian we say "helt sylta" ("completely pickled") when we have a very stuffy nose. I tried using that idiom when calling out of work in the US once, and was informed that I had just told them I was too drunk to go to work!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (6 children)

I love the Norwegian "helt Texas" or "completely Texas", which means something's totally crazy. Probably a reference to Westerns.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

I feel like it's accurate to say Texas is completely Texas.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah it's common in English that saying "I'm Xed" means drunk.

Fucked, twated, trollied, muntered, cunted, steamed etc.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

According to John Oliver you can use any noun, like for example "gazeboed".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (4 children)

That's generally true, but there are some exceptions. For instance. "I'm pissed" can either mean "I'm drunk" or "I'm angry" depending on where you are and the context.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

100% people in the UK would know what you meant straight away.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If someone "got a pig", it means he got lucky in German. Often in a rather desperate or unexpected position. "Der hat mal so richtig Schwein gehabt“ -> "he really got pig there" could for example be used if someone narrowly escaped an accident, if you managed to get exactly the minimum passing score in an exam, etc.

Apparently the expression comes from the middle ages, where the second place in a lucky draw was often a literal piglet. So you maybe didn't get the main prize, but at least you got pig.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada): ಶಂಖದಿಂದ ಬಂದ್ರೇನೇ ತೀರ್ಥ - shankadinda bandrene teertha.

Literally: it's holy water only if it comes from a conch.

Meaning: people are only going to take things seriously if a specific person says it.

Example scenario: you tell a friend that a cab to go somewhere costs X amount, but they don't believe you and check with a different friend and then accept that it's going to cost them X.

You'd then say this idiom to tease them since you gave them the same water (information) but it wasn't holy water since you weren't a conch (someone they trust/have faith in).

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Mandarin Chinese:

I thought of a couple involving animals.

沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally "sinking fish and grounding geese" - describes a beautiful woman.

虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) - literally "having the head of a tiger and the tail of a snake" - meaning: 1. having a strong start and a weak finish. 2. describing someone who is treacherous and doesn't do what they say they will.

Lots of idioms in Chinese are "chengyu" consisting of four characters.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

Spanish, but only from my region:

"You are worth dick": You are worth nothing

"You are not worth dick": You are worth nothing

So basically to be worth dick and not be worth dick is the same.

We also have some variation like

"You are [not] worth three trip strips of cock": same meaning.

A bonus, not related to genitalia:

"Go get your hair brushed by a donkey": Stop pestering / go fuck yourself.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Russian, my favourite one: when a crayfish whistles on a mountain. Means never gonna happen.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

In Hebrew there is "para, para" which translates to "cow, cow" and it means "one at a time"

There is also "matzoz meh-ha-etzba" which translates to "sucked from the finger" and it means bullshit basically.

"Nishbar li ha-zain" which is "my penis broke" and it means "I'm done with this" in an angry and out of petience way.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

My favorite in Macedonian: My dick hurts. Translation: I don't give a fuck. Also, the opposite is true, like if someone says "My dick doesn't hurt at all about so and so", it also means the same thing: I don't give a fuck. Go figure 🤷 😂.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is hilarious 😂 Is it something those of us without dicks would also say? (In English, I might still tell someone to "suck my dick," despite not having one.)

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

This makes me think about the French "je m'en bats les couilles" (litt. "I beat my balls with it"). Some girls say it too, others say they beat their ovaries instead.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

In Arabic "Government of Donkeys" is often used to deride especially incompetent governments, and no I don't believe it's meant to translate to "Ass" instead of "Donkey", Ass came to english by way of Rome and Arabic is on the Yunan side of the Greece Yunan linguistic split.

Although if you wanted to zhuzh it up for proper conveyance in english "Confederacy of Asses" gets the point across a lot less clunkily

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

In Piedmontese (northern Italian dialect):

"To be mounted over squared ball bearing" = to be really strange, not as other people

"Horse brand" = a product of an unknown low quality brand

"To beat the goat" = throw a tantrum

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Italian here (Veneto) How do you say it in your dialect? The ball bearing one. I really can't translate it myself into something that could make sense to me.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

"esse montà 'n sle bije quadre", and the literal translation in italian is "essere montato sulle biglie (cuscinetti a sfera) quadre"

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Irish: Ar muidne muiche.

Literally "on the pigs back" and means "doing great" for example in response to "how are you?"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Slovak: "Boha ti jebem" literally translates into "I fuck your god". Unsurprisingly, it's a curse you tell someone who pisses you off.

The Slovak Prime Minister also likes to say "Do psej matere", which literally means "Into the dog's mom". The English equivalent would be along the lines of "For fuck's sake".

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Not quite an idiom but term of endearment: petit chou in French is little cabbage but is often used for young kids...

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

"Masamang damo", or weed, as in unwanted grasses in your garden, not the marijuana. You call that to someone undeniably evil (or to just someone whom you hate) but just won't go away or die, especially old corrupt politicians.

"Huwag kang pilosopo" which literally means "don't philosophise" but its casual meaning is "don't be a smart ass". However, knowing people in my country especially after electing the son of a former dictator thanks to "Facebook researches", this expression implies to someone not to think critically.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

One of my favorite Koreanisms, is the one where when you're drinking and you cheer "먹어 죽자!" Which literally translates to "eat die". Essentially, it means let's drink until we're dead. Good times.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Picking a few amusing ones from Portuguese and Italian that I use often.

  • [PT] um polaco de cada colônia (a Pole from each colony): assortment of random items or people that might look related but aren't.
  • [PT] o que o cu tem a ver com as calças? (what does the arse/arsehole have to do with the pants?): how is this shit even related [to something else implicit by context]?
  • [PT] vir com o milho enquanto alguém já comeu a polenta (to bring the maize while someone already ate the polenta) - to think about something after someone else already handled it
  • [IT] dire pane al pane e vino al vino (say "bread" for the bread and "wine" for the wine) - let's speak clearly, OK? No [eu/dys]phemism, let's call things by what they are.
  • [IT] scoprire l'acqua calda (to discover hot water) - it's a bit like English "to reinvent the wheel": everybody already knew it, but you just realised it.
  • [IT] l'ospite è come il pesce / [PT] a visita é como o peixe (guest is like fish) - don't overdo your stay; guests and fish, both stink on the third day.
  • [IT] non avere peli sulla lingua / [PT] não ter pelos na língua (to not have hair on the tongue) - someone who speaks openly, not holding back

There's also a funny Latin insult that I tend to jokingly use translated fairly often, "funge putride" (you rotten mushroom). I like it because it's really light, not something to really insult someone.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

German:

tie a bear on so. / so.'s back - to fool so.

make so. believe a X is an U - to fool so.

being blue - being drunk

the devil is a squirrel - devil is in the details

--

My favourite is hard to translate.

'verschlimmbessern' - to want to fix something but making it worse in doing so.

Imbadprove maybe

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

To make a worseprovement! I like that one.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Swede here.

Phrase : "Nu har du skitit i det blå skåpet"

Translation : "Now you have taken a shit in the blue cupboard"

Meaning : "You really fucked up now".

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

In Indonesian, there's an idiom "guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari" which literally translates to teacher pee standing, students pee running. Meaning that students/followers learn not only good examples but the bad as well, and will one day be better at it than their predecessors.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

In Danish we have "Goddag mand økseskaft" (literal: goodday man axe shaft) which can either mean you and another person is misunderstanding eachother/speaking about two complete things while thinking it is related, or it can mean that something gives absolutely no sense. The reason why I like it, is that even the Danish sentence makes no sense, eg. not a valid sentence. Another one I like is "ikke kunne se skoven for bare træer" (literal: not being able to see the forest for because of bare/naked/leafless trees - another might be: not being able to see the forest because of the trees) it means to lose the bigger picture, or to not find something right infront of you, eg. Looking for your phone while speaking with someone, that person could say it.

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