It could also just be English if you only speak English.
Two that are related to falling
猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you’ll always get it right.
七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory
Fall down 7 times, get up 8.
But you’ll have to fall down an 8th time if you want to get up again 🤔
Here’s one in Egyptian Arabic: “He who gets burnt by soup will blow on yoghurt”, meaning that someone who gets hurt once will bexome careful not to repeat the experience.
I really like this! Getting burnt so bad that you’d blow on something cold like ice out of fear.
We have a similar one in Bulgarian too: “Парен каша духа” - roughly the same thing, but without explicitly mentioning youghurt.
There’s a very similar version in Spanish
El que con leche se quema, hasta al jocoque le sopla
He who gets burnt by milk will blow on jocoque
Made me think of the (ptpt/ptbr) saying “Quem com ferro fere, com ferro será ferido” - Who hurts with iron, shall be hurt with iron
In French we have “a burned cat fear cold water” (chat échaudé craint l’eau froide)
Ukrainian “не лізь поперед батька в пекло” (“don’t rush to hell before your father”) - a mix of “don’t be foolish / try to prove yourself / hurt yourself doing so” and also “let experienced people do their job / lead”.
Also Ukrainian “або пан або пропав” (“Either [you become] a lord, or you disappear”), an important risky choice, or sometimes used as YOLO of yesteryear.
When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn’t really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to “Put the pussy on a chain wax”
We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we’d oft repeat it at random.
Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.
So now I’m telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you’ll know what he’s talking about 😶👍
If you ever see that guy, you better draxx them sclounce!
C’est la vie. Because it is what it is.
Burying the cunt of a mouse
In colloquial English, you can say that someone is an idiot with the construction “you absolute [noun]” or “you complete [noun]” or similar.
It doesn’t actually matter what the noun is, but it works better the more obscure or specific the thing is. For example “you absolute saucepan”, “you complete hose pipe”, or my personal favourite “you absolute strawberry plant”.
In this line of thought I like how “tool” is something useful in its primary meaning, but derogatory when used about a person.
Sort of, there is a parallel derivation where tool can be an innuendo for penis (“used his tool”), so describing someone as a tool is a slightly less vulgar way of calling someone a dick; unrefined, rude, obnoxious.
Yeah, fair point. Thanks for explaining. Not a native speaker, so I kind of forgot about that.
No worries - I’m a native, but still had to think about it a bit. English is weird
One of my favorite youtubers Octavius King demonstrates this really well by using “complete and utter desk” as a derogatory term for the worst offenders to intellect.
In Egyptian arabic we have
The world is a cucumber one day it’s in your hand, the other it’s in your ass
(Kama todeen todaan) Literal translation: As you give debt, you will owe debt. Alternative is as you judge you will be judged. Basically what goes around comes around
Do you have a feather on your head? When some one asks for special treatment, this is usually a response to that. Feather on his head is a reference to the sultan.
We stayed quiet so he came in with his donkey. Or we let him be, so he came with his donkey The proverb means don’t let people walk all over you
Show me the width of your shoulders Something I heard a lot growing up, basically means go away. To show the width of your shoulders, you show your back, hence the expression
The first one is absolutely hilarious!
“Пиян като мотика”. Translates from Bulgarian to “Drunk as a mattock”. I remember asking my dad about this phrase when I was a kid - “Why? Do mattocks drink?” - and he answered “No, they fall down”. Classic dad.
Esperanto
krokodili- verb, literally something like “to crocodile”
It means when an Esperanto-speaker speaks in a language other than Esperanto while amongst other Esperanto-speakers.
No one’s quite sure why that’s the term for it, most likely because crocodiles have a big mouth.
When I learned that, it suddenly made a lot of sense why Duolingo taught me the word for “crocodile” so early.
Are there really esperato speakers in the wild (not just Duolingo?) It would be a fun language to learn, but if no one speaks i’d rather just get better at german :)
There’s an expression in French, “enculage de mouches”. Literally means “fucking flies in the ass” and, figuratively, refers to being impossibly pedantic and nitpicky. Closest equivalent in English would be “splitting hairs” I think
Oh we got that here too “flue knepperi” fly fucking
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I really like the german “Geburtstagskind”. It refers to a Person whose birthday is today but literally translates to “birthday child”. However you use it for any age. If its your grandfathers 80st birthday he still is the birthday child this day. Usually people just use the word without thinking about it , but i really like the idea that everyone can get childish again on their birthday. :)
In Khmer, there’s a phrase “មិនដឹងខ្យល់” which literally translates to “Doesn’t know wind” as in they’re so dumb they don’t even know what wind is.
I guess it’s kind of like calling someone an air head but from a different angle.
To show the goats.
Lithuanian: rodyti ožius.
Means to cry, fight or roll on the ground when you didn’t get what you wanted.
