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Weird and wacky expressions | ||
Tags: Idiom | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge |  | |
| socks Triglot Newbie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 26 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English, Telugu, Hindi* Studies: French | Message 49 of 88 04 July 2010 at 10:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Haha, I saw this thread and the first thing I thought of was the Hyderabadi expression:
'Kya to bhi kirkiri!' Literally it means 'What only [nonsensical word meaning rubbish]' Hyderabadi Hindi is very colourful, lol. More vulgar expressions: 'Maa ke laude' - Your mom's penis! 'Bhen ke laude' - Your sister's penis! They tend to be used a lot when you're driving in this city :D Here's one of my favourites: 'Naak me rassi' - A rope in the nose, meaning something that's very irritating. I like to think it originated from when people started to rein cattle and horses, but I've never actually verified that. In Telugu, I have a lot of favourites all in the same vein: 'Nee mokham' - Your face! (The correct English equivalent would be 'What shit!') 'Nee bonda' - Your dead body! (Slightly stronger language used when you think the other person is really stupid) 'Nee talakai' - Your head-part! (This one is just awesome :D)
About the 'sala' insult, it isn't always a serious insult. You may often hear (usually uncouth) male friends call each other that in a brotherly fashion. It's not respectable or polite at all though :D The guru-shishya thing is very interesting, I didn't know they had words for it. It does occur to me sometimes that Hinduism as a culture is a lot less prudish than some western cultures, but these days there tends to be a lot of hypocrisy about things like that. People don't want to come off as 'immoral' or something, I don't know. Edited by socks on 04 July 2010 at 10:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Qinshi Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5534 days ago 115 posts - 183 votes  Speaks: Vietnamese*, English Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 50 of 88 19 July 2010 at 11:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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Có trí thì nên,
Có chí thì nên, gội đầu. Literal: To have wisdom is become a good person, To have lice is to ought to, wash one's hair. This is a play on words, where chí (lice) & trí (wisdom) can be pronounced the same and nên can mean (to become a good person) or (to ought to do something).  Edited by Qinshi on 19 July 2010 at 11:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5116 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 51 of 88 19 July 2010 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
How interesting, Quetzalcoatl. We have the same expression "water bij de wijn doen" in Dutch but it means to compromise. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7157 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 52 of 88 19 July 2010 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Ah, I used that expression in an interview when commenting a decision by some organisation that was run at the time by gentleman who was a notorious alcoholic, and who made a watered-down version of a rather offensive project. "They have put water in their wine", I said, implying that the initial project's crazy nature could only be attributed to excessive drinking. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5685 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 53 of 88 20 July 2010 at 10:58am | IP Logged | |||||
Actually the Dutch expression is due to French influence, as historically there was quite some french influence in the lowlands, especially the southern parts... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Irchard Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 9 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Dutch, French | Message 54 of 88 22 July 2010 at 1:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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My favourite Dutch one has already been mentioned (Dat zal mij een worst wezen). Here are a few others that have tickled me over the years:
Broodje aap verhaal lit. Monkey-sandwich story means: urban legend Maak dat de kat wijs lit. Tell it to the cat Used when someone is telling a story, maybe trying to excuse their way out of trouble, and you just don't believe them This one is directed at the Dutch football team, and could be heard a lot during the World Cup: Laat de leeuw niet in zijn hempie staan. lit. Don't leave the lion standing in his vest. To leave anybody 'standing in his/her vest' means to let them down or embarrass them. The lion in question is the lion in the emblem of the national football team (I guess he's a kind of mascot) Interestingly, you can say something is "niet om over naar huis te schrijven", which is literally the same as the English phrase "nothing to write home about" and carries the same meaning. De aap komt uit de mouw. lit. The monkey comes out the sleeve. Used when the truth (or some important information) that had been concealed is finally revealed. I've also heard "Het schaap met 5 poten" which literally means 'the sheep with 5 legs', but I've never worked out what it is supposed to mean. If I think of any more involving monkeys or sausages, I will post them. Edited by Irchard on 22 July 2010 at 1:41am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Irchard Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 9 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Dutch, French | Message 55 of 88 22 July 2010 at 1:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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I can't believe I forgot this! Strictly speaking it's not an expression, or even slang, it's just one (fairly common) word. It's a Dutch verb that means 'to mimic' or 'to imitate'
Na-apen It is spelt with the hyphen, and is made up of the words "na" which means 'after' and "aap" which means 'monkey' [and is spelt "apen" when made into an infinitive]. I am actively trying to introduce this in to English, but as a noun. If I want to accuse somebody of trying to imitate or copy me, I sometimes say something like "You're such an after-monkey!" It hasn't caught on yet, but I'm hoping it will eventually! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 56 of 88 04 August 2010 at 1:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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More from the French:
French idioms. I have always been a fan of the following idiom: Ce ne sont pas vos oignons ('It is none of your business', or literally, "those are not your onions"), but I now have two new favourites: Avoir l'air d'une poule qui a trouvé un couteau ('to look puzzled or baffled' or literally, "to look like a hen that has found a knife") and something that I challenge any other language to beat for quirkiness (and I post this hoping it does not sound quite as rude in French as it does in English): Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles ('to be lucky' or literally, "to have one's ass stuffed with noodles"). Also, it is likely that you will never look at a map of France in quite the same way again after deconstructing Faire une carte de France. Edited by Spanky on 04 August 2010 at 3:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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