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Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)

For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."

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[–] 25 points 2 years ago* (8 children)

Icelandic is full of fun idioms:
"He's totally outside driving" = he's very incorrect about something, possibly crazy
"It's hard to grab his horns" = He's very headstrong and stubborn
"A wave rarely comes alone" = If something bad happens, usually a lot of bad things happen at once
"He hasn't peed into the salty sea" = he's young an inexperienced
"He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag" = he's untrustworthy
"I totally come from the mountains" = I'm out of the loop, unaware of recent developments

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    "He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag" = he's untrustworthy

    Danish has this also, just phrased like "He's not got clean flour in the bag"

    Maybe it's from common heritage

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    A wave rarely comes alone

    An equivalent idiom in English for this one might be "When it rains, it pours"

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