I Never Knew There Was a Word For It

Home > Nonfiction > I Never Knew There Was a Word For It > Page 14
I Never Knew There Was a Word For It Page 14

by Adam Jacot De Boinod


  The sound of yoghurt

  A little music often helps …

  kanariom (Yoeme, USA and Mexico) the first tune played or danced

  dorremifassolar (Portuguese) to play scales on the piano

  yaourt (French) English pop music sung without any understanding of the meaning; singing to create something that sounds like English pop music but actually isn’t (literally, yoghurt)

  accharika (Pali, India) to make heavenly music

  Wiggle your bucket

  … and then things can really kick off:

  gida (South Africa Township) to jump up and down constantly in one place (as a form of dance)

  menear el bote (Mexican Spanish) to dance (literally, to wiggle your bucket)

  chachula (Tsonga, South Africa) a dance with the rhythmic quivering of the body

  kundáy (Tagalog, Philippines) dance movements made by the wrist

  Duck feet

  Or not, as the case may be:

  hávêsévôhomo’he (Cheyenne, USA) to dance badly

  asiqtuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) nodding with the head while others dance

  pamutas-silya (Tagalog, Philippines) ladies who go to dances but do not dance

  paton (Cuban Spanish) duck feet (i.e. can’t dance)

  Keeping their bottle

  Sometimes you just have to call in the professionals:

  binasohan (Bikol, Philippines) a dance in which three glasses partially filled with wine are balanced, one on the head and one on each hand

  danza de la botella (Paraguayan Spanish) a bottle dance in which each dancer balances a flower-filled bottle on his head

  gamadj (Ojibway, North America) dancing with a scalp in one’s hands, in order to receive some presents

  On reflection

  National anthems

  The title of a country’s officially chosen anthem can be very revealing about its history: the Czech Kde domov mů j (Where is My Home) reflects many years of shifting borders and invasions. Other interesting titles include:

  Burkina Faso: Une seule nuit (Just One Night) Israel: Hatikvah (The Hope)

  Kurdistan: Ey Reqîb (Hey Enemy or Hey Guardian)

  Netherlands: Het Wilhemus (The William)

  Norway: Ja, vi elsker dette landet (Yes, We Love This Country)

  Romania: Deşteaptă-te, Române (Wake Up, Romanian)

  Tuva, Siberia: Tooruktug Dolgay Tangdym (The Forest is Full of Pine Nuts)

  Time, please

  Always be wary of overstaying your welcome. As the Italians say, ‘L’ospite è come il pesce: dopo tre giorni puzza’, the guest is like a fish: after three days he smells bad:

  desconvidar (Portuguese) to withdraw an invitation

  il est comme un cheveu dans la soupe (French) he is not welcome; he has come at an awkward time (literally, he is like a hair in the soup)

  pudyapudya (Tsonga, South Africa) to go away because one is shown one is not wanted

  ngloyor (Indonesian) to go without saying goodbye

  apagavelas (Caribbean Spanish) the last person to leave a party

  IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

  Have your cake and eat it

  auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen (German) to dance at two weddings

  aam ke aam, guthliyon ke daam (Hindi) you can have mangoes and sell the seeds as well

  dikasih hati minta jantung (Indonesian) given the liver and demands the heart

  avoir le beurre, argent du beurre et la crémière avec (French) to have butter, money from butter, and the woman who makes the butter

  non si puo avere la botte piena è la moglie ubriaca (Italian) you can’t have a full cask of wine and a drunken wife

  5.

  Having an Argument

  casa onde não há pão, todos ralham

  e ninguém tem razão (Portuguese)

  in a breadless home, everyone complains and nobody is right

  Cold porridge

  One downside to socializing is all the enforced jollity, often with people you might not choose to spend that much time with otherwise:

  metepatas (Spanish) a person who always does or says the wrong thing

  yokogamiyaburi (Japanese) an obstinate person (literally, to be difficult to tear paper sideways)

  elle coupe les cheveux en quatre (French) she is a difficult person (literally, she cuts hair into four pieces)

  kashi nye svarit (Russian) to be impossible to get along with (literally, the porridge can’t be boiled)

  Being difficult

  The German expression Fisimatenten machen, meaning to make things unnecessarily difficult, is a mangling of the French visiter ma tante (visit my aunt). It originates in the difficulty of imposing a curfew on occupied France during the Second World War. Visiter ma tante was the general excuse used by people arrested on the streets at night by French soldiers.

  On the edge

  Watch out for those snappy exclamations. They’re generally a sign of rapidly fading patience:

  kalter Kaffee (German) that’s old hat (literally, cold coffee)

  dang-geun i-ji (Korean) it’s obvious (literally, it’s a carrot)

  da lachen die Hühner (German) you must be joking (literally, this makes the chickens laugh)

  heso de cha o wakasu (Japanese) don’t make me laugh (literally, I boil tea in my navel)

  nu tog fan bofinken (Swedish) now that’s done it (literally, the devil took the chaffinch)

  ne cui hui v chai (Russian) don’t mess things up (literally, don’t stir the tea with your penis)

  Looking for the hair

  And some people just can’t help but provoke you:

  bamp (Scots) to harp on the same topic constantly, to nag about the same thing

  chercher un poil aux oeufs (French) to nit-pick (literally, to look for a hair on eggs)

  juubakonosumi o (yoojide) tsutsuku (Japanese) to split hairs (literally, to pick at the corners of a food-serving box with a toothpick)

  no tener pelos en la lengua (Latin American Spanish) to be very outspoken (literally, to have no hairs on your tongue)

  napleiten (Dutch) to discuss might-have-beens, go over old ground again, keep on arguing after a thing has been decided

  Pig’s ribbon

  Sometimes you can feel it all getting too much:

  la moutarde me monte au nez (French) to begin to lose one’s temper (literally, mustard is climbing up my nose)

  akaspa (Dakota, USA) to be provoked beyond endurance

  poner como lazo de cochino a (alguien) (Mexican Spanish) to jump down someone’s throat (literally, to make someone look like a pig’s ribbon)

  Cracking up

  We must, of course, do our very best to be tactful and discreet, relying on our wits to keep us out of trouble:

  mijèry àrina an-tàva (Malagasy, Madagascar) not to tell a person his faults (literally, to notice a blotch on the face but not mention it)

  dar(le) el avión a (alguien) (Mexican Spanish) to say yes or agree, without really meaning it or paying attention (literally, to give the aeroplane)

  tumodisa (Setswana, Botswana) to shut a person’s mouth to prevent him from speaking

  ad-hoc-Bildungen (German) making up a new word on the spot in a moment of need

  adin’ andriana (Malagasy, Madagascar) a quarrel in which both parties show great respect for each other

  On reflection

  Hell is other people(s)

  It’s always easier to describe unpleasant things or experiences in foreign terms; it makes them less immediate and it’s a good way of having a dig at another culture at the same time. When we can’t understand someone’s English we call it Double Dutch; while the Danes call a grey cloudy day Swedish Sunshine:

  spaans benauwd (Dutch) lack of air when you are dead nervous (literally, Spanish lack of air)

  une querelle d’Allemand (French) a quarrel started for no obvious or good reason (literally, a German argument)

  kitaiskyi televizor (Russian) the manual examination of baggage at customs (literally, Chinese
television)

  mandras kaip prancū zu šuo (Lithuanian) proud as a French dog

  avoir l’oeil americain (French) to have a sharp eye (literally, an American eye)

  doccia scozzese (Italian) a shower that goes from very hot to very cold (literally, Scottish shower)

  schwedische Gardinen (German) prison bars (literally, Swedish curtains – the Swedish had a reputation for fine quality steel)

  Mexican rage

  Mexican Spanish has expressions for each stage of losing your patience with someone. Alucinar a alguien is to be fed up with someone’s constant and not very welcome presence; estar como agua para (pa’) chocolate, to be absolutely furious (literally, to be as hot as the water needed to melt chocolate); and finally parar(se) de pestañas describes losing it completely (literally, to stand on your eyelashes).

  Picking a fight

  The typically polite Japanese use few insults and those they do use tend to be indirect. Baka (fool) is a combination of the words for ‘horse’ and ‘deer’, with the implication that anyone who cannot tell a horse from a deer is obviously a fool.

  Get lost !

  Other cultures get straight to the point:

  vai à fava (Portuguese) go to the fava bean!

  sukse kuuseen (Finnish) ski into a spruce!

  ej bekot (Latvian) go mushrooming!

  skatertyu droga (Russian) table cloth to the road!

  … especially in the Spanish-speaking world:

  banarse take a bath!

  buscar berros find watercress!

  freir bunuelos fry doughnuts!

  freir esparragos fry asparagus!

  hacer gargaras gargle!

  a la goma as far as rubber stretches!

  Dumb as bread

  The rest of the world is not short of colourful verbal insults. ‘May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits,’ they say in Arabic; and many other languages compare people to animals when being rude. In French your object of scorn is a chameau (camel) or vache (cow); in Swahili, a punda (zebra); while in Vietnam you call the offender do cho de, literally, you dog birth. Other expressions of abuse have clearly exercised the full imagination of the truly upset:

  du bist doch dumm wie Brot (German) you are as dumb as bread

  korinttiaivot (Finnish) an insult to describe the old (literally, currant brains)

  du kannst mir mal in die Schuhe blasen (Swiss German) kiss my arse (literally, you can blow into my shoes)

  du kannst mir gern den Buckel runterrutschen und mit der Zunge bremsen (Austrian German) you can slide down my hunchback using your tongue as a brake

  Anger-hair

  Now things are in danger of getting seriously out of control:

  tener una cara de telefono ocupado (Puerto Rican Spanish) to be angry (literally, to have a face like a busy telephone)

  Gesicht wie ein Feuermelder (German) to be so angry that one’s face turns red (literally, a face like a fire alarm)

  mencak-mencak (Indonesian) to stamp one’s feet on the ground repeatedly, getting very angry

  dohatsu-ten o tsuku (Japanese) to be beside oneself with rage (literally, anger-hair points to heaven)

  mouton enragé (French) maddened sheep (said of an angry person who is usually calm)

  waśihdaka (Dakota, USA) one who gets angry at everything

  False friends

  twist (Dutch) quarrel, dispute, altercation, wrangle

  batman (Turkish) thrust

  pee (Dutch) to be annoyed

  hot (Swedish) threat

  The blame game

  When the blood is boiling things can get increasingly complicated:

  togogata (Yamana, Chile) to turn one’s attention and anger from one person to another

  fijoo (Mandinka, West Africa) anger at someone other than the one who caused the anger

  babit (Malay) to implicate third parties in a dispute

  hewula (Tsonga, South Africa) to shout down one who keeps on arguing after the evidence has shown him to be guilty

  Macho moment

  Pray God, it doesn’t turn physical:

  imbang (Malay) reluctant but prepared to fight

  makgatlha (Setswana, Botswana) challengers who show their wish to fight by throwing down a handful of earth

  dii-konya (Ndebele, Southern Africa) to destroy your own property in anger

  lusud (Manobo, Philippines) to go into someone’s house to fight them

  parandhu parandhu adikkaradhu (Tamil) to fight by jumping and flying in the air

  langola (Mambwe, Zambia) to repeatedly throw a man very hard to the ground

  sugun (Malay) seizing the hair or throat to force down your adversary

  cisanan (Yamana, Chile) a canoe with an avenger of blood in it coming to exact vengeance

  The female is the deadlier …

  The Finnish have a wonderful word, knapsu, for anything that’s not male behaviour. Other cultures are quick to notice the gender-specific:

  Stutenbeißen (German) the special behaviour of women in a rivalry situation (literally, mare biting)

  dzinana (Tsonga, South Africa) to pummel one another with the side of the fists, away from the thumb, as fighting women do)

  vongola (Tsonga, South Africa) to expose the buttocks (which is done by women as the ultimate insult when they run out of invective)

  agarrar(se) del chongo (Latin American Spanish) to brawl, to fight – applied to women (literally, to grab each other by the bun of the hair)

  The flapping of wings

  Whatever sex we are, we sometimes can’t resist having the last word:

  kulumbana (Tsonga, South Africa) to follow a person who left a meeting in disgust and shout insults and reproaches after him

  dar patadas de ahogado (Latin American Spanish) to fight a losing battle (literally, to thrash around uselessly when you’ll drown anyway)

  aleteo (Caribbean Spanish) the last words in a lost argument (literally, flapping of wings)

  IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

  The pot calling the kettle black

  c’est l’hôpital qui se moque de la Charité (French) it’s the hospital that mocks Charity

  bagoly mondja a verébnek, hogy nagyfejű (Hungarian) the owl calls the sparrow big-headed

  rugala se sova sjenici (Croatian) the owl mocked the tit

  il bue che dice cornuto all’asino (Italian) the ox saying ‘horned’ to the donkey

  rîde ciob de oală spartă (Romanian) the splinter laughs at the broken pot

  al jamal ma yishuf sanamu (Arabic) the camel cannot see its own hump

  ein Esel schimpft den anderen Langohr (German) a donkey gets cross with a rabbit

  6.

  The Rules of Attraction

  a tola e à lettu alcunu rispettu (Corsican)

  have no respect at the table and in bed

  The Russian word for falling in love, oupast’, also means to be at a loss, to understand nothing. Other languages stress the magic of the early stages of the romantic encounter:

  koi no yokan (Japanese) a sense on first meeting that something is going to evolve into love

  ong buóm (Vietnamese) bees and butterflies, flirtations, love-making

  anhimmeln (German) to look enraptured at someone (literally, as if they were the sky)

  No-pan kissa

  On summer evenings, in little towns in Italy, young men and women fare la passeggiata, perambulating the central square sizing each other up and flirting, or, as they say in that country, fare il galletto, to do like the rooster. Other societies offer other options:

  blyazh (Russian) a beach where girls can be picked up

  kamáki (Greek) the young local guys strolling up and down beaches hunting for female tourists (literally, harpoons)

  no-pan kissa (Japanese) coffee shops with mirrored floors to allow customers to look up waitresses’ skirts

  tyčovka (Czech) a woman who hangs on to the pole next to the bus driver and chats him up

  Like a motorway

  In
Indonesia, they have a word for falling in love at first sight: kepincut. But when it comes to what’s most attractive in a woman, there seems to be no accounting for tastes:

  rombhoru (Bengali) a woman having thighs as well-shaped as banana trees

  autostrada (Italian) a very slender girl without pronounced sexual attributes (literally, a motorway)

  e thamba (Oshindonga, Namibia) a big, fat and clean girl

  baffona (Italian) an attractive moustachioed woman

  at have både til gården og til gaden (Danish) a woman well equipped both at the front and the rear (literally, to have both to the courtyard and to the street)

  Double take

  Certainly, caution is advised in the early stages:

  layogenic (Tagalog, Philippines) someone good-looking from afar but not up close

  daburu bikkuri (Japanese) women who, as they are approaching a stall, look so attractive that they give the vendor a shock, but when they finally arrive at his counter they give him another shock as the scales fall from his eyes (literally, double shock)

  A face only a mother could love

  And one should always be wary of a blind date:

  kakobijin (Japanese) the sort of woman who talks incessantly about how she would have been thought of as a stunner if she had lived in a different era, when men’s tastes in women were different (literally, bygone beauty)

 

‹ Prev