This article originally appeared on October 19, 2016
All images by Rebecca Cohen, used with permission.
Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
Two donkeys are better than one—'repetition teaches the donkey.'
You probably know what it means to hit the hay, tie the knot or buy a lemon. Maybe you’ve already killed two birds with one stone today, so effortlessly that it was a piece of cake. But to a non-English speaker, using these phrases would probably make you sound crazy … or should I say gone crackers?
That’s the fun thing about idioms. They change depending on the time, place and culture creating them. In other words, they usually sound ridiculous to anyone except those who normally use them.
Looking at turns of phrase in different languages helps us see the world through different eyes. And man does it seem impressive at a party.
Just think, instead of saying “it’s raining cats and dogs,” next time you could incorporate a more Lithuanian take, and say “it’s raining axes.” How metal is that?
It can also be raining old women, barrels, buckets, pipe stems, frogs, female trolls, fire and brimstone … depending on where you’re from.
Some of these idioms from around the world make a lot of sense. Others get so lost in translation, you can’t help but get tickled pink.
Swedish
”Nu ska du få dina fiskar värmda.”
Literal translation: Now your fishes will be warmed.
It's another way of saying someone’s in trouble, or their “goose is cooked.”
The Swedish language is definitely not lacking in the threats department. They also have a saying, “nu har du satt din sista potatis,” which translates to “now you have planted your last potato.”
Imagine hearing Batman say “You’ve planted your last potato, Joker.” Doesn't have quite the intended effect.
Italian
“Avere gli occhi foderati di prosciutto.”
Literal translation: To have one’s eyes lined with ham.
Leave it to the Italians to have food-related phrases. You can use this when someone can’t see what’s right in front of them. It can also be used when someone is blinded by love. Sadly, there is no “ham-colored glasses” idiom.
Icelandic
“Að leggja höfuðið í bleyti.”
Literal translation: To lay your head in water.
You say this when you “need to sleep on something,” or “put your thinking cap on.” This one is hilarious because I cannot fathom getting any mental clarity from holding my head in the water.
Arabic
"At-Tikraar yu’allem al-Himaar.”
Literal translation: Repetition teaches the donkey.
Practice makes perfect, but it especially does for donkeys. Animal-themed wisdom at its finest.
German
"Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof."
Literal translation: I only understand train station.
It's another way of saying “it’s all Greek to me.”
The history of this one is a bit mysterious. One theory is that it originated from WWI soldiers who had only one thing on their mind after getting discharged: returning home. Meaning, they could only comprehend the train station that would lead them there. Others say it refers to tourists new to Germany who have really only learned the German word for “train station.” Which would indicate that everything else is foreign to them.
And let’s not forget “nicht mein bier, nicht meine sorgen,” translating to “not my beer, not my worries.”
(Fun fact: The term “not my circus, not my monkeys” actually stems from a Polish proverb, not an English saying at all.)
Norwegian
“Å snakke rett fra leveren.”
Literal translation: To speak directly from the liver.
When you say something without sugar-coating it, you are speaking directly from the liver. This dates back to a time when the liver was thought to be the magical organ that produced courage. So speaking from the liver is just like speaking from the heart, only down and to the right a little.
Chinese
“Mama huhu.”
Literal translation: Horse horse, tiger tiger.
You can use it to say something is just okay. Not good, not bad, just … meh.
As the story goes, a Chinese painter who, not very good at his craft, created a drawing of an animal that looked sort of like a tiger, and sort of like, you guessed it, a horse. That story actually has a tragic ending that serves as a cautionary tale against carelessness. But nowadays it takes on a lighter connotation.
And like “comme ci, comme ca” in French, “horse horse, tiger tiger” isn’t quite as commonly spoken as non-native speakers would assume.
Language continues to be an ever-evolving and always entertaining way to not only appreciate other cultures, but also note the similarities. Words might change slightly, but ultimately we're all expressing the same things.
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A doornail really is deader than a regular nail.
"Old Marley was as dead as a doornail."
Charles Dickens' line from "A Christmas Carol" is probably the most famous example of the phrase "dead as a doornail," but it's certainly not the only one. Shakespeare used it in Henry IV Part 2: "Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more." An unnamed poet used the idiom for the first time in print in a poem published in 1350, but it's still not uncommon to hear it used today.
"Dead as a doornail" obviously means dead, deceased, definitively not alive. But why a doornail and not just a nail? All nails are dead by their nature of being metal, right? So why even use a nail at all? Why not "dead as a door" or "dead as a rock"? Those are dead, too. What makes a doornail specifically deader than other dead things?
There's a surprisingly interesting answer to that question. As it turns out there really is a good reason for specifying a doornail to convey being really, truly dead.
YouTube creator Malcolm P.L., who mostly makes videos about the history of armor, shared an explanation as well as a demonstration of what a doornail actually is:
So it turns out that a doornail isn't just a nail in a door, but a nail that cannot be removed and reused. Way back when, nails were made by hand and quite valuable. People would salvage and repurpose nails whenever they could. The way doornails were bent and driven into the backside of a door made it virtually impossible for them to be reused as a nail.
So not only are doornails dead simply because they're nails, but because their future potential for any other use is also dead. They are doubly dead, if you will. Extra deceased.
How many other idioms do we commonly use without knowing their full origins? Let the cat out of the bag? The whole nine yards? Spill the beans? Get someone's goat?
Language is so fascinating. Time to do some Googling.
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Education & Information
KoreanBilly explains the differences between American and British accents
His accent is better than some actors.
09.04.21
via KoreanBilly / YouTube
This article originally appeared on 09.26.17
There's an ongoing feud between people of the U.S. and Britain over who speaks correct English. Of course, the English invented the language which gives them an upper hand in the argument.
But Americans have a point when they bristle see words like "Leicester" being pronounced "Lester" or "Schedule" pronounced "Shed-joole" by the British. (Although, of course that's what an American would say!) Then again, the English may be on to something when they describe New England accents as "grating."
In the video below, a YouTuber known as KoreanBilly discusses the differences between American and British English pronunciation from the perspective of a Korean person. People learning English as a second language may not be aware of the differences in pronunciation between the dialects that native speakers pick up easily. Billy discusses the differences in how both types of speakers pronounce the T, H, R, O and A sounds. After a few minutes of listening to him, it's easy to see why your dialect sounds foreign to someone from across the pond.
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