ilas-ana (Yamana, Chile) to cut and spread meat open so that it cooks quicker
tuyong (Tagalog, Philippines) water added to make up for water lost (in cooking)
Dead dog
‘Hunger is the best cook,’ say the Germans, and it’s true that when you’re starving even the lightest snack will taste as good as anything you’ve ever eaten:
smörgås (Swedish) a sandwich (literally, butter goose)
ekiben (Japanese) a packed lunch dispensed from station kiosks
dokhlaya sobaka (Russian) a low-quality frankfurter (literally, a dead dog)
Xoox
For the fuller meal, what fine and varied ingredients the world offers:
jordgubbe (Swedish) a strawberry (literally, earth man)
ah (Arabic) egg white
xoox (Eastern Arabic) plums
sneisar-hald (Old Icelandic) the part of a sausage in which the pin is stuck
tsé-péene éškôseeséhotamého’évohkôtse (Cheyenne, USA) a pork sausage
Slug in the hole
Some ingredients might not be to everyone’s taste:
lelita’ (Iban, Sarawak and Brunei) an edible slug of the swampland
nido (Tagalog, Philippines) an edible bird’s nest
brarah (Hebrew) second-rate fruits (specifically oranges)
kavavangaheti (Tsonga, South Africa) a dead animal so large that people cannot finish its meat (for example, hippo, whale or elephant)
cilh-vāns (Hindi) the flesh of a kite (the eating of which is said to produce madness)
mmbwe (Venda, South Africa) a round pebble taken from a crocodile’s stomach and swallowed by a chief
Cabbage or cheese
The Italians even approve or disapprove in terms of food:
come i cavoli a merenda totally out of place, inappropriate (literally, like cabbage for a snack)
come il cacio sui maccheroni perfect (literally, like cheese on pasta)
Your legs are long
The actual nosh itself is only part of it. Company is equally important, and in many parts of the world you simply have no idea who’s going to show up:
pakirokl (Rapanui, Easter Island) a pauper who comes to someone else’s house hoping to be invited to eat
jiao chang (Chinese) your legs are long (said of someone who arrives just as something delicious is being served)
a la suerte de la olla (Chilean Spanish) to arrive at someone’s house not knowing what food they will be offering (literally, to the luck of the pot)
bufeták (Czech) a guy who hangs around cafeterias and eats leftovers
xenodaites (Ancient Greek) a devourer of guests or strangers
Say cheese
When trying to catch a person’s attention and have him/her look into the lens, the old Czech photographers’ phrase was pozor, vyleti ptacek, which literally means ‘watch out, a bird will be released/fly out’ (from the camera). In Serbia, people are asked to say ptica, ‘bird’. Danish photographers have a variety of phrases they can use, but their favourite is sig appelsin, ‘say orange’.
The English word cheese is often used because pronouncing it shapes the mouth into a smile. Other languages have adopted this method, with different words that have a similar sound or effect:
kimchi (Korean) a traditional fermented dish made of seasoned vegetables
qiezi (Mandarin) aubergine
cerise (French) cherry
whisky (Argentinian Spanish)
In Malta, people sometimes jokingly say ġobon, their word for cheese, which will obviously result in the exact opposite facial expression.
Gobbling it down
Sometimes your guests are so busy filling their faces that they forget about the politer aspects of sharing a meal:
fresser (Yiddish) someone who eats quickly and noisily
physiggoomai (Ancient Greek) to be excited by eating garlic
qarun (Persian) someone who eats two dates or two mouthfuls at once
bwakia (Swahili) to throw into the mouth (for example, pieces of food, nuts, tobacco)
komba (Chewa, South East Africa) to scrape a pot or dish with the forefinger, as children do
pelinti (Buli, Ghana) to move very hot food around inside one’s mouth to avoid too close a contact
ikok (Ik, Nilo-Saharan) to knock bones together in order to take out and eat the marrow from inside
waphaka (South African Township) to eat faster than the rest
Miss Manners
Scoffing too fast can be just the start of the problem:
buttare giu tutto come un lavandino (Italian) to eat like a pig (literally, to throw down everything as if one were a sink)
muwel (Manobo, Philippines) to fill the mouth so that one cannot talk
hdaśna (Dakota, USA) to miss when putting food into one’s mouth
xom-xoàm (Vietnamese) to speak while one’s mouth is full
roic (Gaelic) the sumptuous feasting by boorish people without any of the refined manners of genteel society
False friends
sky (Swedish) gravy
tuna (Tuvaluan, Polynesia) prawn or eel
binlíd (Tagalog, Philippines) small broken particles of milled rice
dark (Albanian) evening meal
fig (Caribbean Creole) banana
Slow Food
So, instead, take your time and fully savour the experience:
fyompola (Mambwe, Zambia) to lick honey off the fingers
pisan zapra (Malay) the time needed to eat a banana
Menu envy
For some, the salad next door is always greener:
Futtemeid (German) the desire to eat what is on another person’s plate (literally, feeding envy)
lyu mupusulo (Mambwe, Zambia) to eat so as to cheat another out of his share of food
selongkar (Malay) to steal food off a plate
gagula (Tsonga, South Africa) to take food without permission, showing a lack of good manners
Picky
Others could do with feeling a bit hungry once in a while:
kieskauw (Dutch) a person who trifles with his food
malastigà (Tagalog, Philippines) being bored of eating the same food all the time
Krüsch (northern German) somebody who dislikes a lot of foods (and is therefore difficult to cook for)
My mouth is lonely
And some greedy pigs just don’t know when to stop:
amuti (Rapanui, Easter Island) a glutton; someone who will eat anything, such as unripe or out-of-season fruit
akaska (Dakota, USA) to eat after one is full
ngang da (Vietnamese) to lose one’s appetite because one has eaten between meals
kuchi ga samishii (Japanese) eating when you don’t need to, for the sake of it or out of boredom (literally, my mouth is lonely)
knedlikový (Czech) rather partial to dumplings
hostigar (Chilean Spanish) to gorge on sweets to the point of nausea
Angel cake
In the end, though, it’s all in the eye – or rather mouth – of the beholder. For better…
alsof er een engeltje op je tong piest (Dutch) utterly delicious, heavenly tasting (literally, as if an angel is urinating on your tongue)
kou fu (Chinese) the good luck prerequisite for having opportunities to eat delicious food (literally, mouth fortune)
… or worse:
panshey (Bengali) food that tastes rather flat
ichootakbachi (Alabama, USA) to leave a bad taste in the mouth
tomatoma (Mailu, Papua New Guinea) tasteless food
pikikiwepogosi (Ojibway, North America) having the taste of an animal that was tired out before it was killed
tsitlama (Setswana, Botswana) to make a wry face after eating or drinking something nasty
Restaurant review
Tired of cooking at home, not to mention doing the washing-up and putting-away, we may tell ourselves how nice it is to eat out. But though the fantasy is great, the reality is often less so:
Schlürfbude (German) a fast-food restaurant (literally, slurp dump)
dolorosa (Spanish) a restaurant bill (literally, painful)
Abendteuer (German) an expensive evening (literally, an adventure)
The condemned man is a final meal
Possibly the strangest takeaway of all is described by the Russian word korova: this is the unfortunate person that prison camp escapees take with them to eat over their period of flight and in their hideout (it literally means ‘a cow’).
IDIOMS OF THE WORLD
Too many cooks spoil the broth
sendou ooku shite fiine yama ni noboru (Japanese) too many captains and the boat will go up a mountain
qi shou, ba jiao (Chinese) seven hands, eight feet
idha kathira ar-rababina gharigat as-safina (Arabic) too many captains sink the ship
zo mangna go lhong mi tshu (Dzongkha, Bhutan) when there are too many carpenters the door cannot be erected
seul mui à vugulion a vez, e vez falloc’h gouarnet ar saout (Breton, France) the more cowherds there are, the worse the cows are looked after
puno baba, kilavo dijete (Croatian) with many midwives, the child will be lazy
veel varkens maken de spoeling dun (Dutch) many pigs make the slops sparse
zyada jogi math ujaad (Hindi) too many saints can ruin the monastery
troppi galli a cantar non fa mai giorno (Italian) with too many cocks singing it is never going to dawn
zuun yamaand jaran uhana (Mongolian) one hundred goats for sixty billy goats
u pyati nyanek dyetya byez glaza, u cemyorykh – byez golovy (Russian) when there are five nurses the child loses an eye – with seven nurses the child is finally found to lack a head
haber más capeadores que toros (Costa Rican Spanish) there are more bullfighters than bulls
15.
One for the Road
fra børn og fulde folk skal man høre sandheden (Danish)
from children and drunks you will hear the truth
The towel of a hippy
The quenching of thirst is another sensation that brings out evocative descriptions. In Chilean Spanish they say they are tener mas sed que piojo de muneca, thirstier than a louse on a doll; or again, in more contemporary usage, to alla hippy, than the towel of a hippy:
tarfa (Hausa, Nigeria) to pour out drop by drop
gargalacar (Portuguese) to drink from the bottle
funda (Swahili) to fill the mouth with water until the cheeks are distended
srann (Gaelic) a drink as deep as one’s breath will permit
ngalela (Setswana, Botswana) to drink and drain the contents of a container in one go
avoir la dalle en pente (French) to have the throat on a slant (in order to be able to drink constantly)
The milky way
The men of the African Toubari and Massa tribes observe a rite called gourouna in which they retire for several months from ordinary pursuits and restraints and drink prodigious amounts of milk.
Social drinking
No one should boire en Suisse (French), drink alone in secret (literally, drinking in the Swiss way). It’s always healthier to share the experience:
gonets (Russian) one sent to buy alcohol for friends (literally, a herald)
chistra (Breton, France) to go from farm to farm and ask for cider
cayetanas (Mexican Spanish) a code word for apple cider disguised in a beer bottle, ordered by cabaret hostesses who don’t want to get drunk
afdrinken (Dutch) let’s have a drink and be friends
glaoch (Irish) the act of calling for a round of drinks at a pub
Bob (Dutch) the designated driver, the one who sticks to one beer and drives everybody home from wherever they’ve been partying (Bob was the name used originally in a famous anti-drink-drive campaign)
Altered states
Soft drinks will satisfy our thirst, but are never as exciting as those which are a bit stronger. It’s surely no coincidence that most of the best words about drinks and drinking involve alcohol. As the literal meaning of the Amerindian Mingo word for alcohol, teka’niköёtényös, has it, it changes minds from one way to another: whether it’s beer you’re drinking…
sampa (Rukwangali, Namibia) to taste beer with one’s finger
bufferbiertje (Dutch) the beer that is standing next to the beer you’re drinking and serves as a buffer in case you finish drinking your beer before you have a chance to get the barman’s attention (literally, buffer beer)
der Diesel (German) a mixture of beer and cola
To your good health?
Around the world the commonest drinking toast is to good health: Na zdrayje (Slovenian), Salud (Spanish), Saúde (Brazilian Portuguese), Kia Ora (Maori), Egészségedre (Hungarian), Gezondheid (Flemish). The Ukrainians take this to the next level with Budmo!, which means ‘let us live forever!’
In contrast, the Scandinavian drinking toast Skål! (pronounced ‘skoal’) has a much more macabre background, as it originally meant ‘skull’. The word is alleged to have come down from a custom practised by the warlike Vikings who used the dried-out skulls of their enemies as drinking mugs.
… or something rather more powerful:
Dreimännerwein (German) a wine so disgusting it takes three men to drink it (two men to make you drink it – you are the third)
kadamsana (Malawi) a very strong home-made spirit (literally, that which brings darkness during the day – aptly describing its knock-out effects)
Vodka vocabulary
The Russians, in particular, have a fine set of words for the many styles of tippling:
pogoda shepchet to take time off from work, or a desire to get drunk (literally, the weather is whispering)
busat’ to drink alone
deryabnut’ to drink quickly in order to warm up
gorlo to drink from the bottle
vspryskivat’ to drink in celebration of a holiday or a new purchase (literally, to besprinkle)
daganyat’ sya to drink in order to get drunk, to try to catch up with the amount of drinking that others have already done
otglyantsevat’ to drink beer or wine after vodka (literally, to gloss a photo print)
ostogrammit’sya to drink 100 grams of vodka as a remedy for a hangover
False friends
full (Norwegian) drunk
grogi (Finnish) whisky and soda
pickle (Chilean Spanish) a person who drinks too much
jaw (Zarma, Nigeria) to be thirsty
On a slippery road
And all languages have evocative expressions for being drunk…
sternhagelvoll (German) full of stars and hail
rangi-changi (Nepalese) slightly too multi-coloured
être rond comme une bille (French) to be as round as a marble
redlös (Swedish) ride free
andar cacheteando la banqueta (Mexican Spanish) to go along with one’s cheek on the pavement
… and for the inevitable results of overdoing it:
khukhurhuteka (Tsonga, South Africa) to walk uncertainly, as a drunk man among people seated on the floor
midàbodàboka (Malagasy, Madagascar) to fall over frequently, as drunken men or people on a slippery road
mawibi (Ojibway, North America) drunken weeping
Backhendlfriedhof (Austrian German) a beer belly (literally, cemetery for fried chickens)
ne govori ou samoi muzh piatnisa (Russian) a shrug of understanding when sharing someone else’s problems (literally, no need to explain, my husband is a drunk)
Under the monkey
For the French you are as sober as un chameau (a camel) but as drunk as un cochon (a pig), une grive (a thrush), or even une soupe (a soup). In Lithuanian you can also be drunk as a pig (kiaulė), or then again as a bee (bitelė) or a shoemaker (šiaučius). Elsewhere you can be drvo pijan (Macedonian) drunk as a tree; jwei ru ni (Mandarin) drunk as mud; orracho como una uva (Cuban Spanish) drunk as a grape; bull som en kaja (Swedish) drunk as a jackdaw; itdek
mast (Uzbek) drunk as a dog; or einen Affen sitzen haben (German) to be dead drunk (literally, to have a monkey sit on one).
The morning after
It’s only when you get home that you may start to wonder what on earth possessed you:
rhwe (Tsonga, South Africa) to sleep on the floor without a mat and usually drunk and naked
gidravlicheskiy budil’nik (Russian) a full bladder (literally, an hydraulic alarm clock)
sasamudilo (Ndebele, Southern Africa) a drink of beer in the morning after a debauch, a pick-me-up
peragar (Byelorussian) the residual taste of alcohol in the mouth
Vineyard flu
And all drinking cultures have inventive expressions for the horrors of the morning after:
avoir la gueule de bois (French) to have a wooden mouth
babalasi (Venda, South Africa) a trembling hangover
futsukayoi (Japanese) a hangover (literally, second day drunk)
winderdgriep (Afrikaans) a hangover (literally, vineyard flu)
einen Kater haben (German) to have a hangover (literally, to have a tomcat)
scimmia (Italian) to have a hangover (literally, a monkey)
IDIOMS OF THE WORLD
Toujours Tingo Page 10