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163

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

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Where does that last one come from?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 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.