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.”

  • mumblerfish@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    In Swedish there is

    “Now the boiled pork is fried”, meaning sometging has gone too far

    " be on the cinnamon", to be drunk

    “Put the legs on your back”, to run

    “You are out biking”, you are missing the point

    “Pay[back] for old cheese”, to get revenge

    " bear-favour", is a favour that gives bad results

    “Now you’ll see other buns”, things will get rough

    " there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go

    “Satan and his aunt”, all kinds of people/everyone

    “Good day, axe-handle”, something like saying “yeah, you dumbfuck” after getting a nonsense repley from someone

    “In only the brass”, to be naked

    “Show where the cupboard will stand”, to firmly make a decision

    “You cupboard”, miss the point, being stupid

    " shit in the blue cupboard", to make a mistake

    Edit: forgot a good one:

    “Get your thumb out of your ass”, to stop doing nothing and start doing something

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I thought “be on the cinnamon” was going to be my favorite, but the list just kept getting better. I think you ended on the best.

    • logos@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      björntjänst bear-favor: From a French fable (L’Ours et l’Amateur des jardins by Jean de La Fontaine) in which a tame bear wants to do his master a favor by hitting the fly who sat down on the master’s forehead, but hits the fly so hard that the master too is killed.

      Interesting

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        10 months ago

        Some Norwegian politicians have completely ruined this expression, and now use it to mean “a really big favor”.

        It’s almost as annoying as when Americans say they “could care less” when they mean the opposite.

        • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          Not as annoying as when they say Caucasian and it means European-looking people, not people from the Caucasus.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      " there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go

      My sides went into orbit. How else would someone entertain themself, when this expression was coined? TV is a recent invention, after all…

    • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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      " bear-favour", is a favour that gives bad results

      Almost the same in German, “Bärendienst” means a bear’s service, means a bad service or one which did much more damage than help, usually unintentionally

    • cikano@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Forgot: “Fastnat med skägget i brevlådan” Literal meaning being: “Stuck with your beard in the mailbox” which is basically saying you’ve fucked up and are getting caught in the act

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Interestingly, English has the same exact expression (“get your thumb out of your ass”).

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      If you are ever visiting Öland, and stop by Solliden, our King’s summer retreat, you can go into a café and they have the toilets in a room you enter through a blue cupboard.

      So yes, I have shat in the blue cupboard at the Kings summer retreat

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      There are no children being made here made me laugh so hard when i tried to imagine to translate it and use it randomly

  • MelonYellow@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Fun question! There’s an abundance in Vietnamese. Usually used by parents and/or old folk (I can hear it now…)

    Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi — Literal translation “cat praises cat’s long tail.” A way of expressing narcissism.

    Uống nước nhớ nguồn — Literal translation is “drink water, remember roots.” So you’d pause, reflect, and remember where you came from.

    Gieo gió gặt bão— Literal translation is “sow winds, weather storms.” A way of saying “you reap what you sow.”

    Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim — Literal translation “Perseverance grinds iron some day into needles.” Used like “practice makes perfect.”

    Trời có mắt — Literal translation “Heaven has eyes.” Usually used when someone’s wronged, but don’t worry - heaven is watching.

    Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng — Literal translation “near the ink it blackens, near the lamp it lights.” You’re influenced by those you’re around.

    Nuôi ong tay áo — Literal translation “raise bees in shirtsleeve.” As in “to nurture a snake in one’s bosom,” kindness will be met by betrayal.

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I really like these. They all seem very poetic, at least in English. I think my favorite is “near the ink it blackens, near the lamp it lights.”

  • kava@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    “o que é um peido pra quem já está cagado?”

    What’s a fart to someone who already shit himself?

    If you’re already 30 minutes late, don’t speed recklessly to save 3 minutes.

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Haha! The equivalent in Ireland (not sure if it’s used in other English speaking countries) is “may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb”

      • Jarix@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Makes me think of " Why cry over spilled milk?" Which never made any sense to me lol

        • owsei@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          tnh I think the spilled milk saying is more about things that you can’t control / already happened.

          and the Brazilian saying is more like “it’s ok to let a little more milk get spilled”, however I can’t think of a nice way of saying that.

          edit: thinking more about that, maybe the milk saying can be used for this, but not necessarily

  • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    In most languages, “get well soon” is expressed as good wishes. In Russian, they use the imperative form, so it is like an order or a command. It’s буд здоров(а), which is literally “be healthy” as a command. They also use it as “bless you” after sneezing. (For those whoe can’t read Cyrillic, in Latin it’s approximately said like “bud zdarov(a)”. The -a suffix is the female version, without it is male.)

    In French, the expression “du coup” (it means something like “therefore” or “so” or “thus”) can be used in place of like 10 other expressions.

    • Ainsi
    • Donc
    • Alors
    • Tout à coup
    • Soudainement
    • En conclusion
    • Si je comprends bien
    • De ce fait
    • Ce qui fait que
    • En conséquence
    • Consequémment

    Is all being replaced by “du coup”.

    In German, capitalisation matters. In contrast with many other languages, nouns must be capitalised, or it changes the meaning. For example:

    • Helft den Armen vögeln
    • Helft den armen Vögeln

    Notice how only the capitalisation changed. The first sentence means “help the poor to fuck” while the second sentence means “help those poor birds”.

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I didn’t know that about German and capitalization. That’s fascinating! How would that play out verbally? Would you just have to figure it out from context?

    • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I took German classes in high school and have been struggling ever since not to automatically capitalize nouns when I write in English. It’s been like 25 years.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      In French, the expression “du coup” (it means something like “therefore” or “so” or “thus”) can be used in place of like 10 other expressions.

      • Ainsi
      • Donc
      • Alors
      • Tout à coup
      • Soudainement
      • En conclusion
      • Si je comprends bien
      • De ce fait
      • Ce qui fait que
      • En conséquence
      • Consequémment

      But “consequently” and “so” and “in conclusion” can all be replaced by “therefore” in English as well as in French … if one accepts a lack of nuance and depth.

      There are subtle differences in all of them, and for instance switching “suddenly” for “if I understand well” would often confuse the listener.

  • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Icelandic is full of fun idioms:
    “He’s totally outside driving” = he’s very incorrect about something, possibly crazy
    “It’s hard to grab his horns” = He’s very headstrong and stubborn
    “A wave rarely comes alone” = If something bad happens, usually a lot of bad things happen at once
    “He hasn’t peed into the salty sea” = he’s young an inexperienced
    “He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag” = he’s untrustworthy
    “I totally come from the mountains” = I’m out of the loop, unaware of recent developments

    • Poiar@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      “He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag” = he’s untrustworthy

      Danish has this also, just phrased like “He’s not got clean flour in the bag”

      Maybe it’s from common heritage

    • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      A wave rarely comes alone

      An equivalent idiom in English for this one might be “When it rains, it pours”

      • cabillaud@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        ‘Les merdes volent en escadrille’ = ‘shits fly in a squadron’ (famous expression coined by former President Jacques Chirac)

      • wjrii@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        There’s also the very nerdy Shakespeare version of the same sentiment: “when troubles come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”

    • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      “I totally come from the mountains” = I’m out of the loop, unaware of recent developments

      Similar to ‘Have you been living under a rock?’.

  • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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    This is English, but Canada specific as far as I know.

    “Fucking the dog” - means to slack off, particularly at work.

    “I fucked the dog all day at work today” basically means I got nothing done.

    It is distinct from “screw the pooch” which means to fuck something up badly.

  • bus_factor@lemmy.world
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    In Norwegian we say “helt sylta” (“completely pickled”) when we have a very stuffy nose. I tried using that idiom when calling out of work in the US once, and was informed that I had just told them I was too drunk to go to work!

    • Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I love the Norwegian “helt Texas” or “completely Texas”, which means something’s totally crazy. Probably a reference to Westerns.

      • bus_factor@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        A classic! I don’t know how I forgot to mention that one, I even coincidentally explained it to someone earlier today!

        • Aremel@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Cubans have the antonym to that:

          Aserlo como los blancos “Do it like white people”

          Do it properly 😜

        • bus_factor@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Almost forgot “jalla” or “jallamekk”, originally adopted by Norwegian military from a middle eastern word for “fast”, meaning a quick and dirty, but not particularly high quality, solution.

    • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      Yeah it’s common in English that saying “I’m Xed” means drunk.

      Fucked, twated, trollied, muntered, cunted, steamed etc.

        • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          That’s generally true, but there are some exceptions. For instance. “I’m pissed” can either mean “I’m drunk” or “I’m angry” depending on where you are and the context.

            • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              Yeah, that’s one of the geographical differences I was alluding to. In Canada it can mean either depending on context.

              • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                That’s interesting to know. I guess there has been some cultural spillover in the UK so some may use it the American style, I just haven’t heard it.

  • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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    Turkish: “Niye böyle bakıyorsun? Karadeniz’deki gemilerin mi battı?”

    -> “Why are you looking like that (Why such a face)? Did your ships sink in the black sea?”

    It was already my favourite before 2022, but hell has it become ever more so then. Slava Ukraini!

  • rcuv@programming.dev
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    Mandarin Chinese:

    I thought of a couple involving animals.

    沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally “sinking fish and grounding geese” - describes a beautiful woman.

    虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) - literally “having the head of a tiger and the tail of a snake” - meaning: 1. having a strong start and a weak finish. 2. describing someone who is treacherous and doesn’t do what they say they will.

    Lots of idioms in Chinese are “chengyu” consisting of four characters.

    • BigilusDickilus@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Chinese has so many good ones.

      Please forgive the lack of tones, it’s been a long long time.

      Ren shan, Ren hai: a mountain and sea of people - a remarkable amount of people by Chinese standards.

      Ma Ma, Hu Hu: horse horse, tiger tiger - a mixed bag, or something that’s ok.

      • rcuv@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        yeah, ren shan ren hai is a pretty good one, and it’s also probably one of the more frequently used ones.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally “sinking fish and grounding geese” - describes a beautiful woman.

      I know a woman who could “make fish stop swimming” as well. We’d also say she could “stop traffic” in that people could forget they were supposed to be driving.

      She’s so gorgeous your brain hiccups.

  • HappyRedditRefugee@lemm.ee
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    Spanish, but only from my region:

    “You are worth dick”: You are worth nothing

    “You are not worth dick”: You are worth nothing

    So basically to be worth dick and not be worth dick is the same.

    We also have some variation like

    “You are [not] worth three trip strips of cock”: same meaning.

    A bonus, not related to genitalia:

    “Go get your hair brushed by a donkey”: Stop pestering / go fuck yourself.

    • Skyhighatrist@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      As an English speaker I would naturally interpret “You are worth dick” and “you are not worth dick” in the same way.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      Central America? Those kind of “click” for me if I retranslate them to Spanish with verga.

      The “basic” insult also works in Portuguese with “caralho”:

      • vale um caralho (worth a dick) = worth nothing
      • não vale um caralho (not worth a dick) = worth nothing

      “Go get your hair brushed by a donkey”: Stop pestering / go fuck yourself.

      This sound hilarious. How is it phrased in the original? “Anda que un burro vos cepille el pelo” or something like that?

      • HappyRedditRefugee@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        South america!

        I didn’t know that also works in Portugese!

        The original is: “Vaya a que lo peine un burro”. Bit of a hard translation and also is always formal (usted).

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I think it’s hilarious how often different languages use genitalia in their idioms. These feel like they’d work really well, even in English.

    • emmanuel_car@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Oooh as a non native speaker, these are fun! Are the first two something like no vales polla or no vales ni polla?

      • HappyRedditRefugee@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Quite close! But we use another word, polla is mainly use in spain.

        “[No] vales [ni] [tres tiras de] verga/mondá”

        But if you use ni you necesarly need the no at the begining of the sentence.

        Mondá is a slang word, very regional. Is also a bit more agressive.

  • overcast5348@lemmy.world
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    ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada): ಶಂಖದಿಂದ ಬಂದ್ರೇನೇ ತೀರ್ಥ - shankadinda bandrene teertha.

    Literally: it’s holy water only if it comes from a conch.

    Meaning: people are only going to take things seriously if a specific person says it.

    Example scenario: you tell a friend that a cab to go somewhere costs X amount, but they don’t believe you and check with a different friend and then accept that it’s going to cost them X.

    You’d then say this idiom to tease them since you gave them the same water (information) but it wasn’t holy water since you weren’t a conch (someone they trust/have faith in).

  • MTK@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    In Hebrew there is “para, para” which translates to “cow, cow” and it means “one at a time”

    There is also “matzoz meh-ha-etzba” which translates to “sucked from the finger” and it means bullshit basically.

    “Nishbar li ha-zain” which is “my penis broke” and it means “I’m done with this” in an angry and out of petience way.

    • ohje@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      In german we have the phrase “etwas aus den Fingern saugen”, which also translates to “to suck something from the finger” and also basically means it’s bs. Thanks for sharing!

      • MTK@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Hebrew probably borrowed it since a lot of its slang comes from European countries

  • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works
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    My favorite in Macedonian: My dick hurts. Translation: I don’t give a fuck. Also, the opposite is true, like if someone says “My dick doesn’t hurt at all about so and so”, it also means the same thing: I don’t give a fuck. Go figure 🤷 😂.

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      This is hilarious 😂 Is it something those of us without dicks would also say? (In English, I might still tell someone to “suck my dick,” despite not having one.)

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, girls say it around here too sometimes 😂, but some also tend to replace the dick oart with pussy, so girls would say “my pussy hurts” or “my pussy doesn’t hurt all” 😂.

    • liwott@nerdica.net
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      10 months ago

      This makes me think about the French “je m’en bats les couilles” (litt. “I beat my balls with it”). Some girls say it too, others say they beat their ovaries instead.

    • MudMan@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      We do “my dick sweats”, for the same thing, which I now realize sounds super gross.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, it is 😂.

        We also have a phrase “dick dangles in cold water” which basically means nothing’s happening or something is irrelevant 😂.

    • wjrii@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      In English, over time, “I could care less” has come to have the exact same meaning as “I couldn’t care less.”

      Some people get wrapped around an axle (i.e. irrationally angry) about it, but i just mentally fill in some context myself: “I could care less… i suppose… if i really tried… but that’s not going to happen.”

      There’s no governing body for English. If you communicate the meaning and social cues that you intended, then it’s “right.” Of course, communicating social cues is sometimes where you can get in trouble using newer linguistic constructions.

      • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, I think the negation part in Macedonian was added later on, in newer generations because it sounded more “cool” I guess. But the phrase has been around for a very long time, probably like 70, 80 years, maybe even longer.

  • tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social
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    In Piedmontese (northern Italian dialect):

    “To be mounted over squared ball bearing” = to be really strange, not as other people

    “Horse brand” = a product of an unknown low quality brand

    “To beat the goat” = throw a tantrum

    • kpaniz@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Italian here (Veneto) How do you say it in your dialect? The ball bearing one. I really can’t translate it myself into something that could make sense to me.

      • tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social
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        10 months ago

        “esse montà 'n sle bije quadre”, and the literal translation in italian is “essere montato sulle biglie (cuscinetti a sfera) quadre”

    • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Also from Piemonte I’ve never heard the horse brand one but “three hens brand” was used regularly when I was a kid.

      My favourite though is “Coma na barca ant el bòsch”, like a boat in the woods

    • RVGamer06@sh.itjust.works
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      27 days ago

      Sorry for the necro, but i need to contribute:

      In Southern Sardinian, su schiron’e linna in sa domu 'e ferreri(the wooden skewer in the smith’s house): something completely out of place.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    In Arabic “Government of Donkeys” is often used to deride especially incompetent governments, and no I don’t believe it’s meant to translate to “Ass” instead of “Donkey”, Ass came to english by way of Rome and Arabic is on the Yunan side of the Greece Yunan linguistic split.

    Although if you wanted to zhuzh it up for proper conveyance in english “Confederacy of Asses” gets the point across a lot less clunkily