Sayings or statements that don't make sense (2 Viewers)

[MarkHastings]

I'm on the lamb

 

[Rex Bachmann]

MarkHastings wrote (post #141):


That's "on the lam", as in 'on the run', 'in flight or escape'. According to the OED, it goes with a (by now outdated?) verb to lam 'to run off, escape, "beat it"'. This is supposedly related to the verb to lame. (And, before anybody asks, beat it is for beat a path (to somewhere).)

 

[andrew markworthy]

Logs are proverbially inanimate (check out Aesop's fable about King Log). Thus, 'sleeping like a log' means that you are deeply asleep and unlikely to be easily awakened.

 

[Cees Alons]

I love threads like this one, not only for the wit but also they're very informative.

Another angle for me is to compare expressions with (possible) similar expressions in mine or other languages. Sometimes they're essentially the same (suggesting a common root or seed), sometimes they don't exist at all (lost? never needed? source not available?), sometimes they are slightly different.

We don't say sleeping like a log, we say the equivalence of "falling asleep like a log", so it's the process. Explains itself, I guess.
(And we "sleep like a little rose", especially children - there's one single word for "little rose", somewhat like roselet; probably this is not exactly as deep as your sleeping like a log.)

In our country, it doesn't rain cats and dogs. It rains "pipe shanks" (referring to tobacco-pipes). I remember the English lesson (many years ago) when we were told about the cats and the dogs, to which our teacher added the question if the weather was even even worse if we heard mention hailing omnibuses.

Andrew, I missed you earlier request before, sorry for that: no, we don't have an expression similar to tongue in cheek in Dutch. I always assumed that it referred to the face one puts on (especially to children) when one pretends to have difficulty not to laugh (tongue in front part of of cheek, before lower row of teeth, mouth shaped like "O", eyes looking away, slightly up, head move slightly forward and down as if being pinched in neck). In other words: the equivalence of a smilie.


Cees

 

[MarkHastings]

I forget the exact saying, but I believe it's something like: "He was ten feet tall if he was a foot."

???

 

[Michael Martin]

Means don't tell me something I already know, or don't try and teach me a skill I already have.

Presumably your grandmother, who's been around for a while, doesn't need to be taught how to suck eggs, hence the saying.

 

[MarkHastings]

but where (and when) does one learn to suck an egg? I can see if it was "Don't tell Grandma how to walk" (or something similar that everyone should know how to do), but why eggs?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Sucking eggs (properly) is an art. My grandma taught me how to do it. Didn't yours?

Glenn

 

[andrew markworthy]

It's simply use of hyperbole to make a point, along the same lines as 'he was a hundred years old if he was a day'. If you want to pedantically rephrase it, then what is being said is 'if this person can be measured on the foot scale of length [and clearly he can] then he would be ten feet tall [which indeed is what he was]'

 

[MarkHastings]

I found this on the web:from: http://www.wordwizard.com/clubhouse/...s.asp?Num=2859

Isn't that how they made Faberge Eggs?


EDIT: I was just finishing this reply when my friend sent me an instant message and said "come on donkey!" - I was like "Huh?" and she said "it's an expression" Is it? What does that mean?

 

[Malcolm R]

Why would anyone ever need to suck an egg? And why would it be such a common activity as to be the basis of a folksy saying?

How about one from Bugs Bunny:

"What a maroon!"

Does maroon mean something other than a shade of color?

 

[MarkHastings]

I always thought he meant 'moron'.

It was probably said as maroon because:
A.) Maroon sounds funnier and B.) In case the kids started copying it, it wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Google sez...

maroon

- Walter.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I've never encountered the phrase, but I have heard variants. Basically, it's telling someone to hurry up, with the implication that they are being unecessarily tardy (i.e. the analogy is that someone is being like a stubborn donkey).

 

[Cees Alons]

Sufficiently taken care of in Austin Powers already, a similar phrase has become popular in Dutch too. It translates (more or less) "then I had (have) something of" as in "Then I had something of 'no, thank you'".

For some reason politicians seem to be very happy to spoil the language with phrases that are just wrong. I'm starting to think that they don't really understand their own mother's language.

Our former Prime Minister Kok (his name has the same effect on some English people as the name of our pre-WWII minister Prick van Wely - pronounce 'whaley') once said 'don't start sombre-ing now' in an interview on TV, the verb obviously meaning 'getting too sombre about (some development)'. The word doesn't exist in our language, but was used frequently since by other politicians.

A few years ago, I heard a Secretary of State (who in my country, like in England, is slightly lower than a Minister) say: "Too bad we just missed the proper momentum in this case". I tried to explain his words as if he really meant momentum, but it was clear he actually meant 'moment'. Perhaps it looked too short and simple a word to him. To my surprise I heard this ridiculous use of the word several times after that, mostly uttered by someone in the political arena.

We have a verb similar to 'exchange' (uitwisselen) and last year a member of parliament said on television 'I don't think this information has been changed in the cabinet yet' (leaving out the 'ex'). I couldn't believe he was serious until I heard it at least four times more - all by members of our cabinet. I don't know what they think (if).

In Dutch, the names of several main cities have been 'dutchified', like in English 'Vienna' for 'Wien' and 'Paris' for 'pah-ree'. It's not usual to pronounce those names as in their original language if you are casually talking about any of those cities.
So, in the same vein, we had "Peking" as the capital of China for many, many years (probably centuries). Twenty years ago (or so) the Chinese gave out western spellings for their main written characters, including 'Behjing' for Peking. Suddenly things started to happen in an until then unknown city in China, consequently spelled "Behjing'. Finally, people realized it was simply Peking all along.
Journalists defended their moronic writing with 'if that's how they spell it themselves, that's how we should do it'. For the logic in this, see of course "Londen", "Wenen", "Parijs", "Berlijn", "Milaan" and "Genua", to mention only a few Dutch versions of common names.
My suspicion was (and is) that they (the journalists) first weren't sure what place it was they read on the telex and didn't dare to replace "Behjing" with "Peking" in the translation of those news flashes.


Back to sayings - a Dutch one, if you don't mind. I'll try to translate.
We have an ancient saying "dancing to someone's piping", where 'to pipe' is a forgotten verb (still present in modern German) meaning 'playing the flute' - like in 'Pied Piper' (of Hamlin). People who know longer understand the phrase, often say 'dancing to someone's pipes'. Nonsense, of course. (In Dutch the difference is more subtle: the use of de pijpen instead of het pijpen.)

A few years back, a big daily newspaper wrote (correctly) that a certain member of the opposition refused to 'dance to the piping of Premier Kok'. Next day in a letter to the editor, a local politician complained "Sir, is it really necessary for your newspaper to use filthy remarks like that, or was it just a foul joke of your editor not to write 'refused to dance to the pipes of mr. Kok'?"
To understand his mistaken line of thought (and a dirty mind is a joy forever), you must know that in common Dutch the verb 'to pipe', or 'piping' indeed isn't used (and often known) anymore in it's original meaning outside that particular saying - except for one other associated meaning.
Just like blowing a flute still seems to be a frequent job in the US (but not a Pied Piper's).


Cees

 

[Stevan Lay]

The street/hood/ghetto/hip-hop lingo is one that has always fascinated me. Most of the sayings are really fun to use and sometimes requires no explanation to the meaning/origin because they are just too entertaining.

For example:

• All that and a bag of chips

 

[Stevan Lay]

After watching the movie Troy it had me wondering if the saying of:

• One's achilles heel

has actually been passed down from the Greek folklore?