# idioms?

Category: Language and Culture

## Post 1 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 17-May-2005 7:41:59

Hi, I am quite interested in the meanings of the idioms, or the saying, or... lets say, if in english you say someone is off the wall, it means they are weird, or there are others out there such as get a grip... which I don't quite know what do they mean... hmm I am just interested in learning these comon ones... and if so there are other languages, such as spanish that use these also and what do they mean?

## Post 2 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 17-May-2005 9:16:36

Get a grip basically means will you sort yourself out ....
If I can think of any I'll let you know...

## Post 3 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 17-May-2005 9:38:18

Lou I'll translate these because they are in broad Scots which is impossible for an outsider to understand, or even the average Scot...smile...
Ahm on the cadge. {I'm hoping to borrow something}
....................
Another shirt il dae me. {a new shirt will do me}...
this is commonly said when a person is ill and expecting to die the new shirt refers to the corpse having been well dressed for viewing before the funeral..
..........................
Have ye a sair hand there {have you got a sore hand} this refers to holding a large slice of white bread in one's hand as if it was a bandage to stop the bleeding...
......................
Come on get aff! {come on get off!} Commonly said by the conductress on the old Glasgow tram cars...

## Post 4 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 17-May-2005 12:57:00

hmm... interesting....
I also know there are really nasty ones or there also are some old slang words or saying like boneyard used to be in the U.S. southern language it ment to be the place where people is barryed at, according o my braille teacher...

## Post 5 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 9:13:16

Indeed there are some crackers and talking of cemeteries, we have a culinary delicacy here called a fruit slice..but its more often called dead fly cemetery, as the fruit resembles squashed dead flies...
The english are called the Auld Enemy due to their incessant persecution of the Scots...
Edinburgh is called Auld Reekie, due to the high level of pollution from coal fires, which turned the buildings black......
Old people are sometimes referred to as coffin dodgers which has always amused me...

## Post 6 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 9:19:38

Hmmmm, coffin dodgers, lol! I must admit, I haven't heard of that one before.

## Post 7 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 10:36:21

..."like a fly on the wall, or "quiet as a little church mouse." Both could be taken to mean that in any location that one is in that one is very quiet and yet still is taking in all the happenings without really no one else paying them particular attention. Connie

## Post 8 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 11:01:00

Scottish Insults these are really good...
Ye'v a face like the back end ae a bus..A face like a well skelpt arse....a face like a burst settee {sofa}....like a torn shoe...and the best 1 I have ever heard ...ye'v a face like a skittery hippen...your face resembles a dirty nappy..
............................................................
Glaikit ..stupid..Clarty...dirty...midden ..a dirty mess....dinna haiver man ..dont talk rubbish...
............................................................
words of agression you might recognise 1 or 2 of these...smile.....
Bampot..idiot ..carnaptious..bad tempered..clype..a tell tale...a nippy sweetie...a bad tempered woman...and my brother's favourite your short ae the cut!..also short tempered... ramgunshoch..means unsubtle and rough..Bauchle..a worthless person...eejit...slightly less stupid than a bampot...heidbanger...someone who is not in touch with reality and libel to be dangerous..

## Post 9 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 11:25:48

Like a mulit-FACE-ited diamond I will have to keep track of these face jokes.... eh for my newly forming face collection.... there is also the statement, “A face only a mother could love.” Meaning the person is ugly.

## Post 10 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 16:35:52

oh gosh well that one is cold... I mean its quite mean but ah well, I have eard another which is "eat humble pie" which means... accept you were wrong. Or, the clasic cocodryle tears which is actually crying for something you should not cry for, for example: The 6-year-old kid gave me some cocodrile tears when he found out he failed the test....

## Post 11 by bermuda-triangulese (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 17:12:32

there are a few that I know that are sort of Bermudian, and a few spanish. The spanish one is, la gota que llenó el vaso, meaning literally the drop that filled the glass. Not literal translation being something like, that's the last straw.
In Bermuda you could say something like, in the local dialect, "Bai yah gun up saint brendens. Which means your headed for a mental institution. If I think if any more I'll let you know

## Post 12 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 18:05:28

Eating of humble pie... not so tasty of a pie. ....... Then too there is the serving someone hot tongue and cold shoulder. That’s the time when after some one has been in a heated argument with you they then turn around and ignore you. ........ Then the statement, I am so mad I could eat nails and spit tacks When you hear that statement better move away ‘cause someone is REALLY angry. ........ When pigs fly means when a situation has a slim chance of happening. ........ Also, you don’t miss the water till the well runs dry means that whatever is needful and useful and is constant in your life and so much so that whatever it is that you don’t miss it till suddenly the well has run dry, you know, whatever is so basic to having, is no longer present in your life. ........ The statement, So is your glass one-half filled or is it one-half empty? Meaning, are you paying attention to the positive or to the negative happenings in your life. Connie

## Post 13 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Wednesday, 18-May-2005 20:29:36

Then there are the statements, Got to eat a peck of dirt before you die means, well, sure is a lot of awful hard stuff that one is given to take at times. ........ Just take it with a grain of sand means whatever the problem is just don’t worry about it as it will work out somehow. ........ Don’t throw the baby out with the wash water means, Yes there is stuff you gotta throw out of your life at times but remember to keep what is good and don’t throw everything out. ........ Your face could stop an 8-day clock means you are so ugly!!!! ........ The next two statements both mean that you are being confronted with difficult decisions that must be faced. The statements are, Being between the devil and the deep blue sea and then the statement, Being between a rock and a hard place. ........ And the old favorite: How much do you love me? Well, I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. (I was always told that the bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck is taken to mean that you love a person A LOT!!!!!!) *smile* Connie

## Post 14 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 19-May-2005 22:25:55

hmm... another I hve heard in englissh also is "hit it off" meaning that you can make it, or you cannot make it, for example: I went in a blind date, but then we knew right away we would not hit it off. Also there is the one that says "paint the town red" which means going out with someone to parties and dances... hmm, I am interesting in learning the most comon english ones... I cannot think of any more, there is a spanish one that is "A palabras necias, oidos sordors" whitch literally means "to rude words, deaf ears" meaning that if someone is beeing mean to you, you would not pay atention to what they tell you. Hmm be back when i can think about any more.

## Post 15 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Friday, 20-May-2005 4:24:33

then too there is, "Talk to the hand 'cause the ear ain't listening," and with that statement a person places their outstretched hand out like almost in the face of the one trying to speak to them and it is like I am totally not listening to what you have to say to me. Again like I am deaf as it were to what you are saying to me. Lou, a really old one that of all things a teacher in elementary school used to say to us students and I thot it was like so weird was, "I'll jump down your throat and tap dance on your liver." This statement was made when she was upset at the class when we would not quiet down. I guess it was a statement that got our attention as it seemed none of us had heard it before so we took more so to quieting down and besides ........ as kids we thot maybe this is something she could do and uck! about her jumping down our throats. I mean like I think her feet stunk and who knows but would you want someone with stinky feet jumping down your throat???? *grin* I think most likely not! *giggle* I will go for now, maybe I can thnk of others. Connie

## Post 16 by Resonant (Find me alive.) on Friday, 20-May-2005 9:28:10

There's a difference, I think, between idioms and proverbs. I love the ones that you don't notice until you're learning their equivalent in other languages. Like the Indonesian term to catch cold means to eat wind, and while thinking that's odd, I realised how little sense catching cold actually makes. Every language has hundreds of these, some of them standing out as being local to a particular area or culture, but there are still so many we just don't notice.

## Post 17 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Saturday, 21-May-2005 19:35:07

hmm also the confusion is that you sometimes think what the other person says too seriously and sometimes you do not get the proverb, saying, slang or idiom. Well as I just started to speak english I don't really know so much about these so if someone uses them a lot in their conversations with me I surely have nothing to understand... lol

## Post 18 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Sunday, 22-May-2005 12:09:10

Earlier in this Post you mentioned, “Paint the town red,” and yes it does mean that say a couple or a group of persons will go out to party and usually it is thot in conjuction of celebrating something that is known to this particular group and joy is forthcoming. While as to visit a “red light district,” means a bit differently. Yes, a party between two may be going on, only the situation is basically one of prostitution.

## Post 19 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Saturday, 28-May-2005 0:15:37

oy... ah well, there is another which is when someone says ""the whole nine yards"" which I learned means the whole thing or also when you say "take a dive", meaning to chill out, relax.

## Post 20 by Resonant (Find me alive.) on Saturday, 28-May-2005 1:57:02

Yep, and if a pub or club is a dive it's sleezy and slow.

## Post 21 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Saturday, 28-May-2005 11:00:32

Then too, “to take a dive” like to take the brunt of someone else’s pain or too it can mean like to bail out of a situation that isn’t working out. If a place is rocking, you know happening then too it is jamming though with the term “jam” as much as it can have musical hints along with it. Like a group of musicians got together to jam, you know to play their instruments together there is also like “in a jam” and that is like to be in a real bad way, especially with say loggers in Michigan it would mean that more than likely a logger had a tree that fell on him and he had died.

## Post 22 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Sunday, 29-May-2005 19:47:13

weird... lol

## Post 23 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 07-Jun-2005 16:31:23

hmm... do not add fuel to the fire, a clasic saying, which well... as far as I know means to do not cause more trouble than there is already

## Post 24 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Tuesday, 07-Jun-2005 19:34:03

That is correct. Then too the statement that goes to the effect of, jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. Seems both to be bad situations to me although to the one jumping it may seem as a last recourse *shrugs shoulders*

## Post 25 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 05-Jul-2005 19:56:39

hmm then there is one that is clasic in english which is... umm, with a grain of salt, meaning you are uncertain about something...

## Post 26 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Wednesday, 06-Jul-2005 18:39:36

Making mention of salt. There is the statement, "Rubbing salt in another's wounds." That is when you add more hurt into a life of another that is already hurting.

## Post 27 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 07-Jul-2005 19:54:22

well that is not nice.... lol.... umm, I cannot think about any more sayings right now.... lol

## Post 28 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Friday, 08-Jul-2005 15:15:51

Someone asks you to do something that you don't want to do and you reply, "When pigs fly!" meaning, well the day pigs fly I will do such and such and given that pigs don't fly then whatever is requested is something that you will never do.

## Post 29 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Saturday, 09-Jul-2005 8:47:53

Then there is that "taking a leap of faith." That is stepping out beyond what or where you are presently finding yourself because somewhere deep inside there is something pulling you to accomplish and do more. It is not the easiest and you still step out... reaching out... taking a step of faith that may seem as though a leap over boundaries great. Connie