It could also just be English if you only speak English.
In Egyptian arabic we have
The world is a cucumber one day it’s in your hand, the other it’s in your ass
(Kama todeen todaan) Literal translation: As you give debt, you will owe debt. Alternative is as you judge you will be judged. Basically what goes around comes around
Do you have a feather on your head? When some one asks for special treatment, this is usually a response to that. Feather on his head is a reference to the sultan.
We stayed quiet so he came in with his donkey. Or we let him be, so he came with his donkey The proverb means don’t let people walk all over you
Show me the width of your shoulders Something I heard a lot growing up, basically means go away. To show the width of your shoulders, you show your back, hence the expression
C’est la vie. Because it is what it is.
Ukrainian “не лізь поперед батька в пекло” (“don’t rush to hell before your father”) - a mix of “don’t be foolish / try to prove yourself / hurt yourself doing so” and also “let experienced people do their job / lead”.
Also Ukrainian “або пан або пропав” (“Either [you become] a lord, or you disappear”), an important risky choice, or sometimes used as YOLO of yesteryear.
“I have to see a man about a horse.”
It means you’re going to the bathroom.
I’ve heard the size of the animal denotes how long they will take and/or how urgently they need to leave.
Brb, I gotta go take a Brontosaurus.
I’ve always heard this used to mean “I’ve gotta leave quickly” rather than going to bathroom; but I’m British so it might not hold the same meaning of you’re not also!
When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn’t really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to “Put the pussy on a chain wax”
We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we’d oft repeat it at random.
Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.
So now I’m telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you’ll know what he’s talking about 😶👍
Argentine here! Some of my favourites:
" Para andar a los pedos más vale cagarse "
Roughly translates to: “better shit yourself instead of going farting around” Worth noting: “andar a los pedos” also means being in a hurry.
" A caballo regalado no se le mira los dientes "
Roughly translates to: “Don’t look at the teeth of a gifted horse”, meaning you don’t look for defects in things that have been handed to you.
" Siempre hay un roto para un descosido "
I think the English equivalent is “there’s a lid for every pot”.
" Lo atamos con alambre "
Translates to: “tie it down with wire”. Usually refers to get something going even if it’s barebones or a shaky fix.
I’ll be thinking of more and maybe drop another comment later.
I like the horse one way more than the English saying “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Yours makes way more sense
“Don’t look at the teeth of a gifted horse”
“don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Yours makes way more sense
Um, it’s the same statement: One could be a direct translation of the other. How can one make more sense?
One is phrased with specificity, implying the action is extremely particular. The other one makes it sound like the horse is likely to bite you if you’re looking in its mouth too closely
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Here’s one in Egyptian Arabic: “He who gets burnt by soup will blow on yoghurt”, meaning that someone who gets hurt once will bexome careful not to repeat the experience.
We have a similar one in Bulgarian too: “Парен каша духа” - roughly the same thing, but without explicitly mentioning youghurt.
In French we have “a burned cat fear cold water” (chat échaudé craint l’eau froide)
There’s a very similar version in Spanish
El que con leche se quema, hasta al jocoque le sopla
He who gets burnt by milk will blow on jocoque
Made me think of the (ptpt/ptbr) saying “Quem com ferro fere, com ferro será ferido” - Who hurts with iron, shall be hurt with iron
I really like this! Getting burnt so bad that you’d blow on something cold like ice out of fear.
I really like the german “Geburtstagskind”. It refers to a Person whose birthday is today but literally translates to “birthday child”. However you use it for any age. If its your grandfathers 80st birthday he still is the birthday child this day. Usually people just use the word without thinking about it , but i really like the idea that everyone can get childish again on their birthday. :)
- Flat out like a lizard drinking
- We’re not here to fuck spiders
- As dry as a dead dingo’s donger
- Forty cents short of a shout
- A few kangaroos loose in the top paddock
We’re not here to fuck spiders
Borrowing this one
What does we’re not here to fuck spiders refer to?
Besides the literal
It implies we are here to do something more productive than fucking spiders
Two that are related to falling
猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you’ll always get it right.
七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory
Fall down 7 times, get up 8.
But you’ll have to fall down an 8th time if you want to get up again 🤔
In colloquial English, you can say that someone is an idiot with the construction “you absolute [noun]” or “you complete [noun]” or similar.
It doesn’t actually matter what the noun is, but it works better the more obscure or specific the thing is. For example “you absolute saucepan”, “you complete hose pipe”, or my personal favourite “you absolute strawberry plant”.
In this line of thought I like how “tool” is something useful in its primary meaning, but derogatory when used about a person.
One of my favorite youtubers Octavius King demonstrates this really well by using “complete and utter desk” as a derogatory term for the worst offenders to intellect.
“Lukee kuin piru Raamattua” (Finnish).
Literally “to read like the Devil reads the Bible”.
Meaning to examine something in bad faith. Never heard it used it in context of the Bible or anything religious, but eg. when interpreting law or contract, looking for the details that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.In Khmer, there’s a phrase “មិនដឹងខ្យល់” which literally translates to “Doesn’t know wind” as in they’re so dumb they don’t even know what wind is.
I guess it’s kind of like calling someone an air head but from a different angle.
“Jeg bryr meg katta”
literally “I care like a cat”, meaning “I don’t care in the slightest and talking more about it is an insult to my time”.
It’s fallen mostly out of use, but I’m hanging on.
are you perchance Norwegian? jeg lærer norsk (faren min er norsk, det er teknisk sett andrespråket mitt men jeg bruker det ikke mye. nå jeg lærer mer)
hvis du er dansk, jeg beklager at forveksler de to, men hvis du er norsk, det er hyggelig å se folk som snakker språket
glem det, dansk bruker “mig”. jeg glemte
Haha, ikke noe problem. Godt observert!
Hehe. Selv om vi nordmenn er litt brutale i språket og ofte tolkes som uhøflige, så betyr «ikke bry deg» noe sånt som «mind your own business». «Glem det» (never mind) fungerer kanskje bedre.
tusen takk! jeg har hørt „nieważne” i polsk også, som betyr “det er ikke viktig”, og jeg tror at det er «неважно» med samme betydning
Muntlig ville jeg nok brukt det. «(det er) ikke så viktig, kom på at ….»
fra min forståelse, du kan si det når du sa noe, personen hørte det ikke.
«Co?» (Hva/Hæ?) «Nieważne» (Det er ikke viktig, glem det)
That’s such a cool phrase though
