If you know me, then you also know that I like to read. If you don't know me, well now you do. I've always been an avid reader and I always manage to find the strangest books. One book I have recently come across is titled, "The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions From Around The World" by Ella Frances Sanders. The title pretty much tells you exactly what's going to be in the book, so I don't think I really need to tell you. Out of the 51 idioms in this book here is a list of my five favorites and their meanings:
1. Latvian-Pūst pīlītes
The first idiom I have chosen hails from Latvia. The English translation is "to blow little ducks".This saying is used when essentially talking nonsense or whatever you're saying is major BS. Did you know that Latvian is a Baltic language? Only two of the Baltic languages are still spoken today (Latvian and Lithuanian) all others are now extinct and they also contain elements of a language spoken around 3500 BCE!
2. Spanish-Tu eres mi media naranja
This one translates to "You are my orange half". This is used as a term of endearment to refer to someone as your soul mate or the love of your life. According to the book, a common theory is that no two oranges are the same and there is only ever one match for each orange half. This term can also be traced all the way back to ancient Greek literature about the notion that humans were originally man-man, woman-man, or woman-woman and that one day, fearing their potential power, Zeus split these double in half.
3. Swedish- Glida in pa en räkmacka
This one's great honestly. It translates to "Sliding in on a shrimp sandwich". Something about that just makes me laugh. It's essentially equivalent to our English expression of "Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth". Both sayings tend to carry the connotation of not really deserving or appreciating having wealth. Our silver spoons are the Swedes shrimp sandwiches.
4. Mandarin- Horse Horse, Tiger Tiger
Unfortunately, I cannot type in Mandarin, so I can't put what this one is in its native language, but I can still tell you what it means! Horse horse, tiger tiger, it's used to say that something is "so-so". Not good not bad; just somewhere in between. Many languages actually have their own version of the expression. The French say "Comme ci, comme ça", in Icelandic it's "Svona, svona", and for the Polish it's "Tak sobie" to name a few. According to the author, the Mandarin version stems from a story about a painter who painted a half-horse, half-tiger and nobody would buy it, or even really liked it since it was neither one nor the other.
5. Romanian-Îl scoti din pepeni
This is a fun one because it means "To pull someone out of their watermelons" this means to drive someone nuts. According to the book, Romanians have many sayings that translate to some pretty weird things, for instance, while you may be surprised, Romanians' faces fall off or l-a picat faţa, and instead of losing their tempers their mustard will jump off, li sare mustarul, and my personal favorite instead of saying that you're wasting time they will tell you to stop rubbing the mint, A freca menta.
This book is filled with wild and meaningful sayings from around the world but I'm not going to spoil it for you. There are soooo many different idiolects and just as many fascinating idioms around the world that I can't help be want to learn all about them. If you're anything like me you will also love with brightly colored book by Ella Frances Sanders. I definitely recommend it!
