"Favorite Idiom in Another Language" Topic

Spurred on by OSchmidt's thread about foreign languages, I'm wondering what your favorite expression or even single word is in a language that is not your sole/primary native language?

Mine are from Korean.

One is the term "pumpkin flower" (hobak kkot). It can be used to describe a girl who may not be the prettiest flower in the garden, yet still a woman nonetheless.

Another is "beer bottle" (maekju byong). My father-in-law uses it to describe how well he swims (glug-glug-glug).

My favorite word in German is langweilig (boring, bland).

Also, I was very enlightened when I learned the Spanish word for pregnant (embarazada). Now I think I understand the old expression (He embarrassed her…) a bit better.

How about you?

I think mine was from my time stationed in Stuttgart with the US European Command. There was (and probably still is) an intersection in northeast Stuttgart known to the Americans as Machts Nicht junction, because it seemed no matter which way you wanted to go you always had to drive around your elbow to get to your thumb. So when you wanted to relate that something was too tiresome to worry about, we used the phrase "machts nicht."

Jim

I like the Irish curse "Go n-ithe an cat thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat"; May you be eaten by the cat, and the cat be eaten by the Devil.
It's got a sense of finality about it.

"Third Day of Rosh Chodesh." Yiddish.

It means "never."

It is used in times when someone asks (usually anxiously) when something will happen, like when will we get the check from a delinquent client or when will the parts come in so we can get the line running. The answer is "Third Day of Rosh Chodesh" (pronounced as "Kadesh".

The reason for the term is that the holiday of Rosh Chodesh is announced at various times and there can be some uncertainty as to when it actually IS Rosh Chodesh (as was explained to me by several Jews and several Rabbi's, all of which had a slightly different explanation. Basically they said then that you can celebrate it on either of two adjoining days as you wish, so you can have a "first day of Rosh Chodesh, or a second day of Rosh Chodesh, but you can never have a third day of Rosh Chodesh.

You can look up a classic definition on Wikepedia-- good luck. I can't even figure it out, but this is what my Jewish friends have told me and used It that way.

Another of my favorite idioms is in English and is of my own creation.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

or, not of my own creation…

"If we had ham, we could have ham with our eggs if we had eggs."

My favorite is- (with bad spelling) Je ne sait qua

I don't know what- it means

Ours in Germany was "Nichts, nein, Idar-Oberstein"- an emphatic "NO!" that rhymed with the one of the towns around Baumholder, West Germany, where I was stationed…

"Mal de muchos, consuelo de tontos"

Roughly 'Misery of many, consolation of fools'. Basically used when a person minimizes a horrible situation by mentioning that others are in the same situation.

Another vote for Machts Nichts (or mox nix)

For a truly foreign one it is German. Schneebrunzer.

It's a term of disrespect and is the equivalent of Schlemiel or slob, and its a person who writes his name when he pyssez in the snow.

Some of my favorites are Italian:

In boca al Lupo – "in the mouth of the wolf" Somehow this means "good luck"

"I'll loan you my pig" – means roughly "I'll help you bury the body," as pigs will apparently eat a dead body.

Didi mau.
link

I've always liked "pull my finger"!

Hands down the Mandarin Chinese swearing in Firefly/Serenity.

link

Definitely NSFW

Frog-Humping Son of a Bitch
青蛙操的流氓 ・ Ching-wah TSAO duh liou mahng

One of the nicer ones.

One of my favorites from Hawaiian Pidgin is the word (expression) bumbai, which means "eventually" in the right context.

"When will this get done?" asked the Mainlander.

"Bumbai, bruddah," replied the Local.

As in, you're on a tropical island, relax and chill out.

I think that Ausfart must be the biggest town in Germany never mind the world. There must be exit ramps for it all over the place.

Wasn't Machs nichts the parking lot for each Reforger when the MPs didn't know where to direct the vehicle or convoy to?
"Ah, doesn't matter, park it over there 'Machst Nichts'."

Spelling came around to be Max Nix over time.

I was stationed in the Stuttgart area too, in Kornwestheim.I know we had a few, but I just can't remember them.

alles klar herr kommissar?

Ufda!

My favorite is- (with bad spelling) Je ne sait qua

"Jenny said what?" [from a stupid commercial on American TV]

Didi mau

Its been so long that I had forgotten that one. There's also "You Number 10" (very lowest) and "You Number 1" (very highest) in American Army slang from Vietnam.

Jim

Akuna Matata… Kiswahili

Pa'd problème (same but in French)

OSchmidt opined:

For a truly foreign one it is German. Schneebrunzer.

It's a term of disrespect and is the equivalent of Schlemiel or slob, and its a person who writes his name when he pyssez in the snow.

In my apprenticeship to become a Broadway stagehand, I learned many multilingual insults for the more feckless among our union brethren. Best delivered with a local accent (pick your borough).

Chamoco – Spanish (pronounced cha-moke), lit. a devil, a person who bedevils your existence with his stupid laziness, silly foolishness, or utter uselessness

Stunade – Italian (it depends on which neighborhood of Utica, but usually 's(ch)too-nahd' with two glottal stops and a vaguely threatening hand gesture), lit. a stupid person, one whose stupidity affects the speaker in an often negative way, on a daily basis which becomes the origin of hatred and contempt for the person spoken of by many if not most; see also, Stugots, in which one refers to the person spoken of in a phallic sense

Schlep, Schlub, Schmuck or Schlemiel – Yiddish (sound pretty much like they look, in a Hebrew written in German kind of way) a complete continuum of the subject's idiocy as regarded in the light of the speaker's fondness for said idiocy

Shoe – English (the English word "shoe") an inanimate object, dull, stupid, inert, useless, or more precisely a person whose laziness and inactivity makes them resemble the sort of unseen obstacle one might stumble over whilst trying to accomplish any actual work

And since someone mentioned Italian it reminded me of my Grandfather's favorite expression, about the only three words he retained from his native language, which went:

"Desit, Asperta, Capice?" which meant "Cut The Bleep, And Wait a Bleeping Second, You Bleeping Understand Me, Kid?" All three words are said with a cutting, biting, clipped expression. Usually three to six hand gestures.

Ashẹwo (yoruba)(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Grommet37-I live in Utica!

From the Russians I used to work with at AAA-'Dobraydeen'-something like 'What a day!'.

OSchmidt wrote:

Another of my favorite idioms is in English and is of my own creation.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

Used all the time on stages everywhere every day my friend. Probably used by both Shakespeare's head carpenter and Julius Caesar's Chief of Geometers.

My own contribution:

"I'm so apathetic I don't even NOT care."

My two favorites heard while backstage:

"Never lose an opportunity to keep your mouth shut." Probably as old as the Egyptian Stonecutter's Union, Local Lasso-Water-Reed.

"Tell your story walking." Best said by someone sitting, with a "bleep off" upside-down hand wave and the no-look.

skippy0001 said:

I live in Utica!

Then you know exactly what I mean. Proper mispronunciation of third generation loan words can be by the block in that part of Upstate. ;) btw, great FIW history in that area. And Italian food. And like forty years ago the best AOR station in the region. I remember the days when I knew all the Thruway and Northway exits, in both directions…

I like the Polish saying that means

"Not my circus, not my monkeys"

I don't recall exactly how to say it in Polish, however.

Mox Nix is my new favorite.

Machs nichts is the Cold War equivalent of todays, 'Aloha Snackbar'.

Kein Geld keine Schweizer

troopwo---you must play Insurgency!

One I got from my Italian born grandmother:
cocciuto (ka-choo-ta)= pigheaded

She lived with my parents and the rest of our family for most of her middle age & senior life. She cooked, cleaned, sewed and babysat my three brothers and I. I have no idea why she referred to us by that?!? No, really, I don't!!!

Otto, Rosh Chodesh is Head of the Month = Start of the Month = New Moon.

The Jewish calendar is lunar, has 13 lunar months. But the old calendar makers weren't very good at their craft, so the months don't exactly fit the lunar cycles, they don't all start properly on a new moon every year.

Certain prayers must be said on Rosh Chodesh. Which Rosh Chodesh – the start of the calendar month, or the actual new moon? Oy vey. The Rabbanim resolved the problem in their usual way – you can pick either one of the two. But not a third. No Third Day Rosh Chodesh.

Personal favorite: gornisht, Yiddish, nothing at all. From German gar nichts.

An old song. Sung mournfully:

Montig gornisht,
Dienshtig gornisht,
Mittwoch, Donnerstig, gornisht,
Freitig, fur a noggn, a gornisht kiggeleh,
Sammshtig, Sonntig, gornisht.

Japanese: Mucha Kucha Isogashii
Crazy Busy or 'I am so busy I am insane!'

plenty in English
link

Two favorites from some Arabic I picked up during a summer in Israel (pardon my phonetic spelling, as I do not know he to transliterate these):

Yanni-- roughly equivalent to "so-so", but also could be used in the same context as "whatever" and "meh."

Ya salaam, yahk-heptdi, ya wah dah dee! -- "Oh my goodness, oh boy-- I've never had a problem like this before!" Supposedly often said by women in Gaza while giving birth. (Taught to me by a nurse who had worked at the Baptist hospital in Gaza city.)

I can't attest to any literal translation of the above, but am assured the general meaning is correct.

This one could be the wargamers' creed:

Cha do bhrist fear riamh a bhogha nach d'fheum fear eile ‘n t-sreang.

(No man ever broke his bow but another man found a use for the string). In the Scottish Gaelic

bona na croin

Neither collar, nor crown.
Meaning I serve no master, and I bow to no king.
I am a free man.

"La madre di tutti gli stronzi è sempre incinta!"

Italian:

The mother of all holes is always pregnant!

WAy back in the last century, I ran into the Founding Father of Slobbovia, James Ritchie, at a science fiction WorldCon convention in Toronto.
I was taught that something that sounded like "Skree Magna Ort" meant "May the Banshees howl over your grave". Or something like that. I could be wrong, but it sounded cool.

My sister-in-law is Thai and she has us all saying "D'ot!" whenever anybody cuts a fart. It's a great onomatopoeia for it, especially if you draw it out when you say it.

Isn't was Homer Simpson said? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

SUKA,,,,,means B***ch in the Russian, picked that up in Bosnia working with what else, Russians……

I read once that there was an old Finnish saying:
slower than a louse in tar

"Sind mir scheissegal!"
link

Korvessa, you are the winner

SUKA,,,,,means B***ch in the Russian

It's also the nickname of the SU-76 self-propelled gun:

Adding "ka" to a word makes it the diminutive (female) form of the word. My ex's name is Paulette, the "ette" added to Paul making it the female form of the word. So the Russians added "ka" to "SU" to make "Suka," or "little SU." That fact that the word also means "bitch" was deemed appropriate, at least by those who had to drive the things.