Strange wordings and phrases

[Isagel]

I enjoy strange phrases in different languages. I don´t know if there are people in this forum that share this interest , but still. We are a lot of different nationalities here so I thought we could exchange some. Here are some nice swedish strange phrases:

"Att vara på kanelen" : an old way of saying tipsy, or slightly drunk - literally "To be on the cinnamon" . Your guess is as good as mine to how this strange phrase came to be. Another usual way of saying drunk is happy - "glad" , or if your slightly drunk but not more than what is fitting for a nice dinner : "salongsberusad " - parlordrunk. As you can see we have a lot of expressions about levels of drunkness.

We don´t say honeypie - we say pussgurka = kisscucumber or sötnos - sweetnose.

Lagom is a typical swedish word meaning "a proper amount, not to much and not to little " : I can´t find a good english word for it. To be lagom can also be a kind of personal characteristic, and is considered a virtue by a lot of people in Sweden, and as a flaw by some.

[Koa]

Of course I'm interested in this sort of things, though I'm terrible at finding examples... *blank mind*

[amuse]

me too...i love little phrases hear and there. use a smattering of german / spanish / yiddish. wish i knew more in russian and french (also wish I could do the accents right), but can't think offhand of one! in english. which is strange for a folklore buff...

your contributions are wonderful, Isagel!!! any more?

[Koa]

Note: my interest is not much in little phrases themselves, but in the apport (??) they have in the whole of a language...

Like the well known 'legend' that esquimese have lots and lots of words to describe snow...

Something peculiar is 'sweet' words (hard topics as it might lead me to depression, but the linguist in me needs to talk about it): while English just say things like 'sweetheart', did you know that a sweet word in Hungarian is 'my insect'?

amuse, which nice expressions do you know in Russian? I'm sure I know some basic ones, but I can't recall them now...

This topic needs elaboration...I'll be back!

[amuse]

she ate the dog = she knows her stuff

once your head's cut off, there's no use crying about your hair. [oh dear, that's not so nice, is it. sort of stalin-esque!]

[amuse]

oh wow, there was a fatal error on my comp. and everything i tried to add's gone.

i worked with a sparkly woman from litvania who used to have a tv show for teens. we managed a coffee shop and had fun together being silly between busy, busy work. she used to call amy and me "amishka" and "ashishka;" amy and i'd call her "irishka." so endearing! that's the only reason i know those phrases, da and nyet. pretty limited!

[Koa]

Russians do use a lot of endearings, even when it's not necessary, and in that case they don't get translated cos they'd look ridicolous in another language....it's quite peculiar, and sort of annoying

[Isagel]

There are different ways of saying endearing things in different parts of Sweden. One of my personal "favorites" is vännen - (the) friend, said to your husband or wife or somebody that is close. - So when I get home from work my boyfriend greets me with - Hello, the friend! Dinners ready. (Oh -lifes good!) When your comforting someone you quite often use the the words lilla vän - little friend. (vän is pronounced a bit like wenn).

And because of all the drunk words you might need this as well. We do not say hangover, we say bakfull - backdrunk.

We also have this expression that I can´t find a good english word for - sambo, co-live - somebody that lives with you, a boyfriend or girlfriend. Not married. A lot of swedes (most?) live as sambos, not husband or wifes. We also have särbo - a new expression (apart-live) somebody that you share life, but not apartment with. There are laws concerning sambos, and you can make sambo agreement, in case you split up. So I have a "sambo". I don´t know if this is strange to you or not.

[den]

`mon petit choux ' - my little cabbage... a french term of endearment, though I'd only say it to my cat.

[Isagel]

Cabbage? Is the cat offended? Perhaps it doesn´t understand french :-).

[Koa]

In Italian there's no word for 'hangover'. of course we express that, but with more than one word and it's not only specific for that...and it doesnt sound too familiar as an expression, it's almost literary.

[Sancho]

I love this stuff.

I understand that prior to the Norman invasion the word “silly” meant something like devout, or deeply religious, or close to god. It was a word reserved for monks or priests or prophets and the like. The word began to evolve and its meaning changed from “touched by god” to just plain “touched” to, well, “silly.”

[Sancho]

This is from this month’s Harpers. It’s a collection of Korean idiomatic expressions:

“Just because you fear maggots doesn’t mean you should give up making soybean sauce.”
-- Don’t let obstacles deter you.

“You’ve got a big swollen liver”
-- You’ve got a lot of nerve.

“When the rabbit is caught, the hunter kills, boils, and eats his hunting dog.”
-- Subordinates are expendable.

“He darts between the liver and the gall bladder.”
-- He’ll switch sides if it suits him.

“He can’t distinguish between excrement and bean paste.”
-- He can’t tell good from bad.

I’m thinking of using some of these down at my job.

[Cassandra]

He he

[den]

" You’ve got a big swollen liver”

Ha! I thought this meant `you're an alcoholic/chronic drinker'