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Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by alquicksilver@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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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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[-] sacredbirdman@kbin.social 2 points 6 months ago

Finnish ones (some sayings here too):

"Ski into a spruce!" -> Get lost!
"So the forest answers as one calls into it" -> what comes around goes around
"If you reach for the spruce you'll fall into the juniper" -> don't bite more than you can chew
"to be like hit on the head with a piece of wood" -> to be baffled
"it went into the forest" -> something failed
"to have own cow in the ditch" -> to have their own hidden agenda behind a request or actions
"to throw the spoon into the corner" -> to die

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

"It went to the forest" - we have that one in Swedish as well: "Det gick åt skogen". It's possible that it crossed the border in either direction during our imperial days, I suppose.

[-] Jaytreeman@kbin.social 1 points 6 months ago

Where does that last one come from?

[-] sacredbirdman@kbin.social 1 points 6 months ago

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's from a time when spoons were rarer and everyone had their own spoon. So, to discard your spoon meant you're done with eating for good.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

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