Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)?
Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)?
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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Russian, my favourite one: when a crayfish whistles on a mountain. Means never gonna happen.
You reminded me one in Latin in the same spirit: kalendis graecis, or "in the Greek calends".
Calends were the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, there was no Greek equivalent, so that meant simply "never".
"Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift" (I think my pig is whistling) - in German that means "I can't believe it".
Or you can say "after a rainfall on thursday" which means the same thing, never gonna happen.
Portuguese: "Dia de S. Nunca à tarde" meaning "day of saint Never, after noon."
Portuguese has a plethora of expressions like that:
- trinta e um de fevereiro (the 31st of February)
- na semana com duas quintas (in the week with two Thursdays)
- nem que a vaca tussa (not even if the cow coughed)
- quando galinha tiver dente (when chickens get teeth)
- nem a pau (not even by [being beaten with a] wood[en rod or stick])
- nem fodendo (not even fucking)
- nem aqui, nem lá na China (neither here, nor in China)
When pigs fly.