What is a metaphor you like in your language?

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• snf@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  There’s an expression in French, “enculage de mouches”. Literally means “fucking flies in the ass” and, figuratively, refers to being impossibly pedantic and nitpicky. Closest equivalent in English would be “splitting hairs” I think

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  • kamills@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Oh we got that here too “flue knepperi” fly fucking

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• nooneescapesthelaw@mander.xyz ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  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

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  • Shapillon@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The first one is absolutely hilarious!

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• stevedice@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A couple of figures of speech from Mexico that I find equally nonsensical:

  Simón: Means yes.

  Nelson: Means no.

  Mátala(o) (kill it): to finish a drink or a snack.

  Jalar (pull): To go somewhere or agree to a plan. You may also hear its long form “¿jalas o te pandeas?” (do you pull or do you bend?) meaning “are you coming or not?”.

  ¿Se va hacer o no se va a hacer la carnita asada? (Are we doing or not the carne asada?): It means “Is the plan still on?”

  Chapulinear: There’s no literal translation for this one but I guess it would be like “grasshopper-ing”. It means seducing a friend’s partner.

  Tirando el perro (throwing the dog): Flirting.

  Arma la vaca (build the cow): To make a small fundraise.

  Here’s a modern one:

  Quesadilla: Means “that’s so sad” because it sounds like *Qué sad (illa)*tal

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  • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I knew a girl who tiraba el perro al novio de su amiga, so I guess she also was trying to chapulinear xD

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• kamen@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “Пиян като мотика”. Translates from Bulgarian to “Drunk as a mattock”. I remember asking my dad about this phrase when I was a kid - “Why? Do mattocks drink?” - and he answered “No, they fall down”. Classic dad.

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• Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  “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.

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  • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    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

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    • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      ikke bry deg, dansk bruker “mig”. jeg glemte

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  • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That’s such a cool phrase though

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• RegalPotoo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  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”.

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  • kamen@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    In this line of thought I like how “tool” is something useful in its primary meaning, but derogatory when used about a person.

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    • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Sort of, there is a parallel derivation where tool can be an innuendo for penis (“used his tool”), so describing someone as a tool is a slightly less vulgar way of calling someone a dick; unrefined, rude, obnoxious.

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  • Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    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.

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• themeatbridge@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I don’t speak German, but I picked up a few phrases for work. They have a few idioms that I think of sometimes:

  “Ich glaub, ich spinne” which means I think I’m crazy, but literally translates to “I think, I spider.” It’s a great visual metaphor, being overwhelmed by the threads going everywhere that you imagine you’re a spider spinning a web, and also you’ve entirely forgotten grammar.

  “Bahnhof verstehen” or “Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” means “I understand only the train station.” It’s something you say when you don’t understand anything, you’re completely lost, and you don’t give a shit becaue you just want to get the fuck home.

  I might be off on those translations or the subtext, but that’s how I understood it.

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  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    and also you’ve entirely forgotten grammar.

    That’s a misinterpretation. The German “spinne” is a proper verb in that sentence, like “to spin” in English.

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    • Oisteink@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      So it can be what a spider does, but also what political doctors do, and the latter is the context here?

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  • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The “Bahnhof verstehen” comes from the notion that many people learning a foreign language start with some simple sentences like “Can you tell me the way to the train station”. So people who only “Bahnhof verstehen” (OK, horrible grammar here) have not proceed past the first lesson.

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    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      My understanding is that is came from soldiers returning from WWI who did not speak enough German to communicate, but were seeking the trains home.

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  • Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Not fluent at all, but I always parsed “Ich glaub, ich spinne” as “I feel like my head is spinning”

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    • raef@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      No, it’s not “spin” like a top or top be dizzy. There’s a bunch of meanings, and some are similar to those two, but none fit for dizzy

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• DjMeas@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  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.

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• Flubo@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  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. :)

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• Yaky@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  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.

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• DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  • 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

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  • Stamau123@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    What does we’re not here to fuck spiders refer to?

    Besides the literal

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    • weew@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It implies we are here to do something more productive than fucking spiders

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  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    We’re not here to fuck spiders

    Borrowing this one

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• EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  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

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  • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.uk ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Fall down 7 times, get up 8.

    But you’ll have to fall down an 8th time if you want to get up again 🤔

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• LouNeko@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  C’est la vie. Because it is what it is.

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  • Shapillon@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    C’est la vie

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• jpreston2005@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  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 😶‍👍

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  • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If you ever see that guy, you better draxx them sclounce!

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• 211@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  “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 crumbs that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.

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• NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  “Das geht mir am Arsch vorbei.”

  German for I don’t give a damn about that.

  Literally: it passes by my ass.

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  • accideath@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Or, if you wanna sound intellectual: „Das tangiert mich peripher.“

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• stinerman@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  “I have to see a man about a horse.” It means you’re going to the bathroom.

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  • notfromhere@lemmy.ml ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’ve heard the size of the animal denotes how long they will take and/or how urgently they need to leave.

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    • Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Brb, I gotta go take a Brontosaurus.

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  • ALiteralCabbage@feddit.uk ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    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!

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• zealshock@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  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.

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  • BmeBenji@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    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

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    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      “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?

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• BastingChemina@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre (We can’t have the butter and the butter’s money)

  This one would be the French equivalent of “You can’t eat cake and have it”

  Tomber dans les pommes (Falling in apples)

  This is an expression to describe fainting

  Tailler une pipe (Carving a pipe)

  Give a blowjob

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  • B3n33333@jlai.lu ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre

    Et le cul de la crémière. Littearly “and the ass of the dairy-woman”

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  • weew@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I only just realized the pun inside “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

    Most people complain that it’s a pointless idiom because if you possess a cake, you are likely able to eat it.

    Having cake is another way of saying eating cake. It’s saying you can’t eat your cake and then eat your cake again.

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    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It’s saying you can’t eat your cake and then eat your cake again.

      I read this like “have it on the shelf” . One can’t save money and still spend it.

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• karpintero@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  “El correo de las brujas” translates to “the witches’ mail” and means gossip or rumors. Kind of like “heard it through the grapevine” or a “a little birdie told me”

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• Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Esperanto

  krokodili- verb, literally something like “to crocodile”

  It means when an Esperanto-speaker speaks in a language other than Esperanto while amongst other Esperanto-speakers.

  No one’s quite sure why that’s the term for it, most likely because crocodiles have a big mouth.

  When I learned that, it suddenly made a lot of sense why Duolingo taught me the word for “crocodile” so early.

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  • LegoBrickOnFire@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Are there really esperato speakers in the wild (not just Duolingo?) It would be a fun language to learn, but if no one speaks i’d rather just get better at german :)

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• pip@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  An example as if I was talking to you: “I’ll wack you like an octopus” which technically already describes the action, however traditionally in my country after catching octopus in order to properly kill them and soften them up, fishermen basically smack/wacked them on the ground maniacally.

  And I think it’s become such a popular figure of speech because that mental image is hilarious and I love using it.

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  • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    What language is that in :)

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    • pip@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Greek

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• IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  前世害左你么？(In Cantonese/Taishanese)

  Did I hurt you in your previous incarnation?

  Parents always say this when they get mad.

  I guess it translate to “What did I do in my previous life to deserve a shitty kid like you?”

  So a round-about way of just saying trash-talking their kid basically.

  I always respons, “So why did you hurt me in my my previous life?”

  Or “Yea you hur me in my previous life and I reincarnated here for revenge” 🤣

  (Who the fucked coined that phrase, why is reincarnation brought up wtf lol)

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• BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  You’re mustard

  English. It’s a good thing, means the person is awesome.

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  • voytek709@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    You’re mustard for teaching me this!

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• AstralPath@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Kill two birds with one stone. Get two birds stoned at once. 😎

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  • fubo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Stone two birds with one hit.

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• superduperpirate@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Referencing an unpopular future possibility - “that’ll go over like a turd in a punch bowl”

  Describing something you don’t miss - “I miss that like I’d miss a case of the clap”

  Rain coming in at a weird angle - “this rain is like a cow pissing on a flat rock”

  When someone says they wish some specific thing would happen - “wish in one, shit in the other, see which one fills up first”

  When you’re unenthusiastic about something - “I’d rather shit in my hands and clap”

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• SolidShake@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  Oddly meaning, you act like your dumbass parent.

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• gilgameth@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Burying the cunt of a mouse

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