What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

General discussion about learning languages
User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7231
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23122
Contact:

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby rdearman » Fri May 05, 2023 6:04 am

天高皇帝遠 - Heaven is high and the emperor is far away

Basically used to say nobody is around and your probably not going to be caught doing something you should not.
12 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

User avatar
Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3505
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Location: Koude kikkerland
Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
Maintaining: es, swahili.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
x 9384

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Le Baron » Fri May 05, 2023 2:04 pm

tommus wrote:
Le Baron wrote: I don't buy the thing about lead being used as 'payment' because it's not historically true to the history of currencies. No-one ever used lead to pay for anything as a standard currency.

The detailed explanation didn't say lead was used as 'payment', it said 'proof of payment'. (als bewijs van betaling). It was used as a sort of receipt.

Yes, though don't know any evidence of this being a thing. The most common throughout history for this sort of thing (any sort of credit note or tally) has been broken and notched pottery/sticks because it is difficult to fake the other half and a lot cheaper than lead. If we forget that and assume it happened, I can't see that it makes sense with regard to the expression. The paperweight one is well-known. Also things 'onder het loodje' are those like fishing nets or lines weighted with lead. These things based in work tend to be the origin of many expressions.
0 x

User avatar
diaconia
Yellow Belt
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:31 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (C1 in 2004), Russian (beginner), Ancient Greek (beginner), French (needs refreshing)
x 260
Contact:

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby diaconia » Sat May 06, 2023 11:55 am

This doesn't fall within the category of idiom but it's pretty good and I have to share!

(Germany again) I was driving with a colleague past a Neubaugebiet (area where new houses are being built) and my colleague pointed to all the new houses and said, "Kangaroo Hügel!" "Kangaroo hill"? What does that mean? "Großer Sprung, nichts im Beutel!" which means big leap, nothing in the pouch. Germans use the same word "Beutel" for wallet and pouch. Basically people who buy something and can't afford it. I said, I gotta steal that one! :D
6 x

User avatar
Sae
Green Belt
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:27 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (Native)
Vietnamese (Intermediate)
Mongolian (Beginner)
Tuvan (Beginner)
Toki Pona (Beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18201
x 836

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Sae » Tue May 09, 2023 2:33 pm

I've not knowingly spotted many Vietnamese idioms, but I was listening to a Vietnamese band and picked out what could be translated as "I ****ing don't know half of you". It's colloquial, but being honest I picked it out because I was pleased I recognised the expletive from the one time I accidentally said it when trying to say another word but messed up my pronunciation. See, making mistakes helps you learn.
1 x
Vietnamese Practicing conversation
Mongolian: Learning vocab
Tuvan: Building Decks & full study plan
Tuvan Song Progress (0/3): Learning Daglarym - Lyrics & Melody Learned
Language Fitness 1.5 hr exercise p/w

User avatar
Sae
Green Belt
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:27 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (Native)
Vietnamese (Intermediate)
Mongolian (Beginner)
Tuvan (Beginner)
Toki Pona (Beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18201
x 836

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Sae » Sat May 13, 2023 10:56 am

Not an idiom, but kind of an interesting meaning I learned today that shows why the language is pretty interesting.

In Vietnamese if you want to say plus/minus you say dương/âm.

But the words have ties to beliefs behind life and death, because death is only the death of the body and then there's the after life/other existance that people like your ancestors belong to, and there are connections with the lunar near year being celebrated (in fact the full name of 'tet' is: tết âm lịch, which has 'âm' in it, 'âm lịch' is the lunar calendar) and death anniversaries etc.

Dương refers to our life and âm refers to their life. So when a number is a negative value, it has died and gone to the afterlife...that's how I interpret it at least lol
1 x
Vietnamese Practicing conversation
Mongolian: Learning vocab
Tuvan: Building Decks & full study plan
Tuvan Song Progress (0/3): Learning Daglarym - Lyrics & Melody Learned
Language Fitness 1.5 hr exercise p/w

Dragon27
Blue Belt
Posts: 616
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:40 am
Languages: Russian (N)
English - best foreign language
Polish, Spanish - passive advanced
Tatar, German, French, Greek - studying
x 1375

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Dragon27 » Sat May 13, 2023 1:45 pm

'Âm' and 'dương' is Sino-Vietnamese for 'yīn' and 'yáng' - the two opposite forces in Chinese philosophy/cosmology. Which lends itself rather naturally to the interpretation of being 'negative' and 'positive'.
3 x

User avatar
Sae
Green Belt
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:27 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (Native)
Vietnamese (Intermediate)
Mongolian (Beginner)
Tuvan (Beginner)
Toki Pona (Beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18201
x 836

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Sae » Sat May 13, 2023 7:26 pm

Dragon27 wrote:'Âm' and 'dương' is Sino-Vietnamese for 'yīn' and 'yáng' - the two opposite forces in Chinese philosophy/cosmology. Which lends itself rather naturally to the interpretation of being 'negative' and 'positive'.



I didn't know it was Sino-Vietnamese for Yin and Yang, but I did wonder if the ideas were related, so it does make sense.
0 x
Vietnamese Practicing conversation
Mongolian: Learning vocab
Tuvan: Building Decks & full study plan
Tuvan Song Progress (0/3): Learning Daglarym - Lyrics & Melody Learned
Language Fitness 1.5 hr exercise p/w

DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1968
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
x 4049

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby DaveAgain » Tue May 16, 2023 9:00 pm

tirer au flanc > move to the side > to be lazy

https://www.laculturegenerale.com/tire- ... xpression/
1 x

User avatar
Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3505
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Location: Koude kikkerland
Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
Maintaining: es, swahili.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
x 9384

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Le Baron » Tue May 16, 2023 10:22 pm

DaveAgain wrote:tirer au flanc > move to the side > to be lazy

https://www.laculturegenerale.com/tire- ... xpression/

'Dodge' (work or effort).
1 x

User avatar
Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3505
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Location: Koude kikkerland
Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
Maintaining: es, swahili.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
x 9384

Re: What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

Postby Le Baron » Tue May 16, 2023 10:56 pm

Speaking of French ones I read one I had to look up: Épouser la veuve.

Not 'marry the widow' in a literal sense, it means to be hanged or earlier to be guillotined. With this quote from Hugo's 'Last Day Of A Condemned Man':
Épouser la veuve (être pendu), comme si la corde du gibet était veuve de tous les pendus*

"To marry the widow (to be hanged), as if the gallows rope were the widow of all the hanged..." Though not of his coinage because at the beginning of the list in which it occurs he says : "Ils [other prisoners in the exercise yard] m'apprennent à parler argot." So it's argot.

Apparently there's also a derivative: épouser une prison. None of these could be described as 'fun idioms'. :lol:

* https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6838/pg6838.html
Last edited by Le Baron on Wed May 17, 2023 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Slowpoke and 2 guests