We have many phrases that we use all the time and know their meaning, though the actual words seem absurd. I bet there are many more phrases that if we heard them, we would feel like foreign visitors wondering what the conversation means.
Here are a few:
'Not my circus, not my monkeys'
It's not my problem, Polish
'Pull an old cow out of the ditch'
Bringing up an old argument in Holland. Presumably, the argument, like an old cow, should be just left there
'There is no cow on the ice'
Therefore there is no reason to panic, say the Swedes.
'Pretend to be an Englishman'
That is, pretend that you are innocent and have no idea what is going on. The Serbs, it seems, have trust issues with the English
'God gives nuts to the man with no teeth'
An old Arabic saying that comments on the inherent irony of life.'
Going where the Czar goes on foot'
Going to the toilet in Russia. Apparently, it was the only place the Czar wasn't carried to..
'Feeding the donkey sponge cake'
Giving special treatment to someone who doesn't need it, according to the Portuguese.
'I'm not hanging noodles on your ears'
Russian for 'I'm telling you the truth.'
'Give someone a pumpkin'
In Spain, that's how you stand someone up.
I found a site with 83 such expressions HERE. It is a bored panda article and one of the expressions got my attention: He who digs a pit for others will fall in it himself (Romanian proverb) with the meaning What goes around, comes around. I like that an expression interpreted by an expression.
I would definitely add these to the joke library. |
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