Idioms

[Swatopluk]

One thing that makes learning foreign languages difficult are the idioms because they often are not self-explanatory and not necessarily to be found in the dictionary.
I once possessed a booklet about the topic beginning with the sentences: This actor is a ham: The whole thing is a turkey. The show falls flat like a pancake. Literal translation would not be very enlightening .
It's also interesting to compare idioms in different languages. I for example get the impression that, in cases of parallel development, English idioms tend to be more graphic and/or close to home/down to Earth thatn the German equivalents.

Examples:
English: like a bull in a china store
German: wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen
A bull is (at least in Europe and America) more common than elephants are

English: carrot and stick
German: Zuckerbrot und Peitsche (sugar-bread and whip)
How often do you encounter sugarbread and why should it be so desirable? (apart from me not really liking carrots)

'The moment when the shit hits the fan' is extremly graphic. I know no German equivalent

What strange idioms do you know, especially if English is not your first language?
We could make a quiz about meanings.

What for example do the following (originally German) idioms mean? Do you know a/the English equivalent (without looking it up!)
1) to hand over the spoon
2) to end like the Hornberg shooting match
3) a face not to muddy any water
4) broad as an owl
5) like the ox before the new gate

[Lindorm]

Just a few quick comments before I have to go to work:

- In Sweden , the carrot-and-stick is "Morot och piska", literally carrot and whip.

- A very common "reinforcement word" in colloquial Swedish is "Skit" -"Shit"- tacked on to just about anything. Thus,. you have the somewhat unlikely but perfectly common expression "skitbra" -literally "shitgood" or even "skitgott" - "tastes shitgood". These expressions are positive ones, with the "shit" serving as a reinforcement of the main particle of the word. You can of course use it in a negative sense, too -"skitdåligt" and "skitkallt" for example, meaning "shitbad" and "shitcold" respectively.

Peripherally, something that fascinates me is how a profession or trade develops it's own vocabulary with slang, technical expressions and usage of words that differs from the common norm. The railways are rife with this, with lots of expressions that might be completely opaque to an outsider. "Walk a train through the bathtub", "wind up a signal", "take a knocking walk", "drunsa" "get a handle on a point" are but a few. What's even more interesting is how this usage can differ from one group to another, even very small groups. In the goods yard where I work, we have people coming from (before privatisation) two different yards in Stockholm, located within kilometres of each other, who use different expressions for the same thing, or even have different meainings for the same expression.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

English: carrot and stick
German: Zuckerbrot und Peitsche (sugar-bread and whip)
How often do you encounter sugarbread and why should it be so desirable? (apart from me not really liking carrots)

To be sure-- the carrot is not for humans-- it is for the horse/donkey/mule, who nearly always love such things as a welcome treat, who is pulling a wagon/cart/buggy.

The whip/stick is a very common tool, when controlling such animals, in such a situation.

It should also be recalled, that mules/donkeys/horses also love sugar, hence the sugarbread would work as well as a carrot as an enticement.

As our civilization moves farther and farther away from horse-and-drawn-cart technology, into pure machines, we tend to forget the roots of the analogy.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

There's a Hungarian one I know of via a crazy little Hungarian teacher I had last spring: "The partridge will not fly into your mouth" (meaning you have to work for things).

1. "Neck of the the woods" - in the same area as something else.
2. "In a New York minute" - practically instantly.
3. "Underfoot" - in the way.
4. "Jump the gun" - too soon or hastily.
5. "Close, but no cigar" - almost successful, but not quite.

[Griffin NoName]

hand over the spoon

[Bluenose]

"flat out like a lizard drinking" - very busy
"he's got a roo loose in the top paddock" - he's crazy

[pieces o nine]

Lock, stock & barrel.
(means the whole ... 'she-bang!')   



I'll add a couple common English phrases used incorrectly by co-workers who no longer have any cultural understanding of the origins (like the 'carrot & stick' Bob elaborated upon).

1. "I brought a butt-load of chocolate back from vacation. Want some?"
(mmmmm no)
(one of my all-time horrible favorites -- should be 'boat load'.)

2. "I gotta nip this in the butt."
(from gardening: 'nip in the bud'.)

[Aggie]

1. "I brought a butt-load of chocolate back from vacation. Want some?"
(mmmmm no)
(one of my all-time horrible favorites -- should be 'boat load'.)

Inappropriate for chocolate, definitely!  I actually suspect "butt-load" is a misplaced euphemization of "ass-load", as in the amount that can be carried by a donkey.  North Americans (myself included) tend to regard "arse" as a milder form of "ass", when the butt-sense of the latter is actually a derivation.

Agree on the misuse of "nip in the butt", although if one spends enough time around dogs of a certain temperament they may be excused in said misuse.

[Swatopluk]

The English carrot and stick is definitely meant originally in connection with animals. The German sugarbread on the other hand was somewhat of a luxury item and meant for human consumption.

While we are at sugar:
Dem Affen Zucker geben - to give sugar to the monkey
Jemand Zucker in den Arsch blasen - to blow sugar into someone's ass (not the donkey this time)

[Aggie]

The common English equivalent is "blowing smoke", not sugar.

[pieces o nine]

Also common in these-here parts: "don't blow sunshine" up there..

(instead of  'don't pull my leg')

[Bluenose]

Another from down under

"don't come the raw prawn with me, mate"  a polite suggestion that the person the comment is directed at may be stretching the truth just a teensie wee little bit.

[Aggie]

Here's a province-specific one from BC:

"wop some nuts" or "woppin' nuts" = spinning donuts in a vehicle in a snow-covered parking lot.  This one is unheard of outside of BC, AFAIK.

[Swatopluk]

The common English equivalent is "blowing smoke", not sugar.

I German 'blowing (blue) smoke' means 'to lie'. The sugar thing is to heap too much praise on somebody.

I believe I get snogged by a moose
I believe my hamster is waxing the floor
Nightingale I hear you clumping

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Another from down under

"don't come the raw prawn with me, mate"  a polite suggestion that the person the comment is directed at may be stretching the truth just a teensie wee little bit.

Aussie idioms seem to focus on animals. American on sports. Why is this?

I believe I get snogged by a moose
I believe my hamster is waxing the floor
Nightingale I hear you clumping

lolwut