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Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by alquicksilver@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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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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[-] Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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

[-] Poiar@sh.itjust.works 10 points 8 months ago

"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

[-] Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah probably, a surprising amount of Icelandic idioms have Danish/Norwegian counterparts

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago

Swedish has it as well, so I think we can safely scratch it down to common heritage.

[-] Archer@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

They do not fuck around when it comes to unclean flour

[-] Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 months ago

A wave rarely comes alone

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

[-] cabillaud@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

'Les merdes volent en escadrille' = 'shits fly in a squadron' (famous expression coined by former President Jacques Chirac)

[-] wjrii@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago

There’s also the very nerdy Shakespeare version of the same sentiment: “when troubles come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

[-] ABCDE@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

“I totally come from the mountains” = I’m out of the loop, unaware of recent developments

Similar to 'Have you been living under a rock?'.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

163 points (97.7% liked)

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