20 Unusual Foreign Phrases
by Darin at N30 24.652, W097 43.644
- "My favourite is the French l'esprit d'escalier, or spirit of the staircase. This is used to describe the precise moment a person comes up with a clever retort to an embarrassing insult. It is usually after leaving the party, and walking down the stairs that the quip comes to mind." Lee, Wellington, New Zealand
- "In Chinese if you tell a man they dai Lu maozi, meaning 'he wears the green hat', it means that his wife is sleeping with someone else." Zac Teehan, Fredericton
- "It's weird that English doesn't have words for vorgestern (the day before yesterday) and 'ubermorgen' (the day after tomorrow)." Anke, Germany
- "I think my favourite word, and not for its literal meaning, is the Spanish puente meaning bridge. Unlike ourselves, they cleverly place their bank holidays on a Tuesday so that Monday will, on most occasions, be treated as a bridge day (an extra day of holiday) ensuring a four day weekend. Ah, the Mediterranean lifestyle..." Gary Walker, Barcelona
- "My favourite is faire du leche-vitrines which literally means 'to lick the windows' and translates as window-shopping. Phil, in France
- "I have a soft spot for the German luftkissenfahrzeug. The literal translation being 'air cushion vehicle', but to you and I it is the simple 'hovercraft'." Jude , Birmingham, UK
- "In Cyprus, the instrument used to remove staples from paper is termed a petalouda, literally translated into 'butterfly'. Go figure." Jasmine, Nicosia, Cyprus
- "In Japanese, amakudari, literally descent from heaven, describes the phenomenon of being employed by a firm in an industry one has previously, as a government bureaucrat, been involved in regulating." Jack L. Yohay, Nabari, Mie-ken, Japan
- "My favourite is the Spanish for handcuffs...esposas...mi esposa means 'my wife'. So 'mi esposa, mis esposas' means 'my wife, my handcuffs'." Ben, Bristol, UK
- "In Arabic an electrical plug adapter that allows more than one plug to be plugged into the same socket is known as a harami, literally a thief." Brian, Jeddah
- "There are a few more interesting German words such as handschuhschneeballwerfer, which means somebody, who wears gloves to throw snow balls. It is used in general for all cowards." Bernie, Duesseldorf
- "In Romania pune-ti pofta-n cui (literally - hang your craving in a nail on the wall) means to forget about getting something." Gabriel, Bucharest, Romania
- "In Japan we call a balding man's comb over a bar code." Kevin, Tokyo
- "The Fuegians (from Tierra del Fuego) have a succinct word - mamihlapinatapai and it means 'two people looking at each other each hoping the other will do what both desire but neither is willing to do'." Zephyrus, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- "So far as I'm aware, no other language has anything equivalent to the Icelandic setja upp gestaspjot, a verbal phrase denoting the action taken by a cat when cleaning itself, with its body curled tightly in a circle and one back leg sticking directly up in the air. Literally it means 'put up a guest-spear' and when a cat was seen doing this it was supposed to indicate that visitors would be turning up." Nicholas Jones, Cambridge, England
- "I'm a student of the Ubykh language, which has a word - qaamch'ip'q'i - that means 'a filigree metal ornament on the handle of a whip'. It's also an idiomatic term for someone whose good or kind outward appearance is deceptive." Rohan Fenwick, Brisbane, Australia
- "My favourite used to regularly appear on Austrian traffic reports - geisterfahrer or 'ghost driver' - one travelling the wrong way up an autobahn." Eric Pritchard, Clevedon, UK
- "In Venezuela we have culebra, literally snake, but meaning a long, morbid, sentimental soap opera. 'My wife is watching the snake,' means that she is watching the soap opera." Ivan, Caracas, Venezuela
- "From Flemish: iets door de vingers kijken, literally it means looking at something through the fingers, allowing something illegal or incorrect to happen by conscious inaction." Wouter Vandersypen, Washington DC
- "As a native German one of my all-time favourites is the word gemutlich - impossible to translate directly." Jessica, Nottingham, UK
/Journal | link | Add a comment (0 total) | edit
