Weird-ass Idioms

[Torco]

So i'm browsing through chengyu, you know, those four-character idiomatic phrases chinese has, and i come across this little thing

(敝邑易子而食)析骸以爨
which should mean something like
in my city, we exchange kids and eat them, divide up the bones and use them for fuel.
[lit my city exchange kid and eat, divide bone use stove]
That's metal as fuck! that's gotta be the most hardcore, balls-to-the-walls idiomatic expression I've seen ever. Have you come across similarly unsettling, or just plain weird idioms?

[Salmoneus]

There's one my mother uses to describe a state of being busy, or of there being lots of people around: you won't know who you are.

"Oh there were so many people there I didn't know who I was."
"All those things planned? You won't know who you are!"

Pretty sure it's idiomatic, that she's not consciously thinking about what it means. But it's a fascinating philosophical/psychological notion: that personal identity is important (losing it is a fear or to be lamented), but that it requires constant attention, and that having too many distractions will cause identity to be lost.


What is your chinese idiom meant to mean, btw?


Oh, and there's that great example from east africa, possibly apocryphal, which means 'oh dear' but translates literally to something along the lines of 'the entire country is being over-run with Germans!'.

[linguoboy]

Joder la marrana is pretty hardcore. It makes our own "screw the pooch" sound benign by comparison.

[jal]

What is your chinese idiom meant to mean, btw?

http://www.wordsense.eu/%E6%98%93%E5%AD ... %E9%A3%9F/


JAL

[Qwynegold]

Hmm, I don't know if these are that weird...

Bara jag får tummen ur (röven) - If only I can get my thumb out (of my ass)
If one is able to stop procrastinating one will get a thing done.

Se koira älähtää johon kalikka kalahtaa - The dog that is hit by the piece of firewood is the one that yelps
When someone suddenly argues furiously against you, it's because you happened to hit a sore spot on that person with what you've just said.

[Bristel]

il m'a posé un lapin (lit. he put a rabbit to me) "he stood me up" (which is another idiom for "didn't come to the date/meeting we arranged")

[sirdanilot]

Die heeft een klap van de molen gekregen - He has been hit by a windmill
-> He's completely out of his mind

Hij loopt in zeven sloten tegelijk - He walks in seven ditches at a time
-> He's all over the place

Doesn't get more Dutch than that I think

[jal]

Hij loopt in zeven sloten tegelijk - He walks in seven ditches at a time
-> He's all over the place

The expression is "Hij loopt niet in zeven sloten tegelijk", meaning "He's street-wise", "he's careful". I haven't heard it with the affirmative.


JAL

[sirdanilot]

Oh really? The affirmative one does not sound weird to me at all. It's not a very frequently used expression in any case.

Other fun ones:

Je hebt de klok wel horen luiden maar je weet niet waar de klepel hangt. 'You have heard the bell sound, but you do not know where the <thingy inside the bell that causes it to ring> is'

My explanation of that idiom is kind of what the idiom means (you get the general gist of something but you don't understand it exactly).

[jal]

Oh really? The affirmative one does not sound weird to me at all.

Weird or not, that's not how the expression goes :)

Je hebt de klok wel horen luiden maar je weet niet waar de klepel hangt. 'You have heard the bell sound, but you do not know where the <thingy inside the bell that causes it to ring> is'

According to Wikipedia, that's a "clapper or uvula".

My explanation of that idiom is kind of what the idiom means (you get the general gist of something but you don't understand it exactly).

Well, it means that you've heard of something, but don't know what it is about exactly. It's often used when someone acts as if they *do* know exactly what it is about ("niet gehinderd door enige kennis").


JAL

[Viktor77]

Of course there are the typical English idioms related to the ass like 'head up his ass' and 'stick up his ass' etc.

But the one that my father says that really grinds me is 'to get the shaft' as in 'The tax system is all wrong - the rich just get richer and it's the poor who get the shaft.' The origin is actually mundane, something to do with Medieval times, but I can't help but every time think of it alluding to the idea of oral sex and the shaft of a penis as opposed to the better part, the head.

Oh and then there's the standard, less idiom more an adage, 'Never look a gift horse in the mouth.'

[sirdanilot]

Also fun is 'stront aan de knikker' shit on the marble

Which means something among the lines of 'shit hits the fan'.

[jal]

Also fun is 'stront aan de knikker' shit on the marble
Which means something among the lines of 'shit hits the fan'.

Not entirely. It means "there's something seriously wrong". I think "de rapen zijn gaar" ("the turnips are well cooked") is an idiom better suited for translating "the shit hits the fan".


JAL

[linguoboy]

Danish: Er det hestens fødselsdag?
Translation: Is it the horse’s birthday?
Meaning: The rye bread is too thick on my open sandwich.

[Zaarin]

Danish: Er det hestens fødselsdag?
Translation: Is it the horse’s birthday?
Meaning: The rye bread is too thick on my open sandwich.

That's a remarkably situation-specific idiom.

[Qwynegold]

Of course there are the typical English idioms related to the ass like 'head up his ass' and 'stick up his ass' etc.

But the one that my father says that really grinds me is 'to get the shaft' as in 'The tax system is all wrong - the rich just get richer and it's the poor who get the shaft.' The origin is actually mundane, something to do with Medieval times, but I can't help but every time think of it alluding to the idea of oral sex and the shaft of a penis as opposed to the better part, the head.

Huh, I've always understood that to mean that they get fucked in the ass. Shaft vs. gland doesn't matter, because what's bad is being bottom, in straight people's opinion. At least that's how it works in Swedish when you figuratively talk about people getting assfucked.

[jal]

that's how it works in Swedish when you figuratively talk about people getting assfucked.

I now have images of Swedes talking daily about assfuckery :)


JAL

[Yng]

well it's the same in English right? 'I'm so fucked', 'they're really fucking us' etc

[Qwynegold]

that's how it works in Swedish when you figuratively talk about people getting assfucked.

I now have images of Swedes talking daily about assfuckery


JAL

Astraios will be pleased.

[Qwynegold]

well it's the same in English right? 'I'm so fucked', 'they're really fucking us' etc

Yeah, isn't it?

[Xephyr]

Back when it was still around, the Xhosa Dictionary website gave this as one of its examples of proverbs/sayings. I have no idea if it's actually a thing people say, but I was amused by it.

Akukho qili linokuzikhoth' emhlaneni.
a-ku-kho Ø-qili Ø-li-na-uku-zi-khotha <e->umhlana<-ini>
NEG-INDEF.SUBJ-exist INDEF-genius INDEF.REL-CLS-with-INF-REFL-lick <LOC>back
"no one is so smart that they can lick their own back" i.e. ~"nobody's perfect"

[R.Rusanov]

Speak for yourself, Xhosa phrasesmiths.

[sirdanilot]

Jal, those two mean pretty much the same thing.

One to one translations of idioms are impossible, you make it seem that 'de rapen zijn gaar' is the exact same thing as 'shit hits the fan', this is not the case. Choosing the translation of an idiom depeds on interpretation nd context. As 'shit hits the fan' is less formal I would definitely choose to translate it wit
h 'stront aan de knikker' (shit on the marble) if I had to choose between the two as that is also the less formal option.

[Yng]

Egyptian Arabic has ḍarab is-sabʿa ضرب السبعة 'hit the seven' for female masturbation and ḍarab il-ʿašara ضرب العشرة 'hit the ten' for male masturbation. Syrians say ḥamāt-ak bətḥəbb-ak حماتك بتحبك 'your mother-in-law loves you' when you turn up and food is ready/available (or in the negative if you turn up just after food has been eaten). None of these are that weird (except the inexplicable choice of numbers I guess).

In Persian سر چيزي چانه زدن sar-e ciz-i câne zadan 'hit the chin at' means 'bargain over'.

[Salmoneus]

Is the choice of numbers based on shape, or symbolism, or...?