Interesting foreign phrases.

[Spiffor]

A French phrase I like is "enterrer quelqu'un" (to bury somebody). The most common meaning of the word is about the action of burying. Nothing to see here.

However, another meaning is "to outlive". It's not really nice to say somebody that you'll "enterrer" him, but it's not a declaration of war either.

IIRC, the word has the same meaning in Russian, but not in English, which is why the famous sentence "we will bury you" was such a misunderstaning

[Harovan]

Reminds me of a German phrase "Haare auf den Zähnen", having hair on one's teeth. It means, being hard to deal with in discussions, or hard to argue with.

[molly bloom]

I've always admired the German ability to come up with phrases or compound nouns for concepts that other people might not have even conceived of- 'schadenfreude', for instance, and 'Lustmorder'.

Similarly, 'Zeitgeist' 'wanderjahre' and 'Weltanschauung', and memorably, 'sauerkraut'- that well-known instrument of torture. *



(* not true of me- I like sauerkraut, especially with fried sausage, honestly)

[Ecthy]

Elefantenrennen, "elephants' race", when one lorry/truck overtakes another one on a dual carriageway, thus producing a long line of cars going slower than usual, creating public rage.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
spiffor

Quoté pour la vérité!

[alva]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Reminds me of a German phrase "Haare auf den Zähnen", having hair on one's teeth. It means, being hard to deal with in discussions, or hard to argue with.

Another one we share.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by molly bloom
I've always admired the German ability to come up with phrases or compound nouns for concepts that other people might not have even conceived of- 'schadenfreude', for instance, and 'Lustmorder'.

Similarly, 'Zeitgeist' 'wanderjahre' and 'Weltanschauung', and memorably, 'sauerkraut'- that well-known instrument of torture. *

(* not true of me- I like sauerkraut, especially with fried sausage, honestly)

You should see some of our recent word creations, decorated with the Unwort des Jahres (non-word of the year) award.

A few examples:

Winner 2004: Humankapital (human capital, debasing humans as mere economical factor)

3rd 2002: Zellhaufen (heap of cells, meaning a human embryo)

Winner 1999: Kollateralschaden (colateral damage, describing the extinction of innocent people as negligibility)

Winner 1998: Sozialverträgliches Frühableben (socially compliant early passing, describing the early death of older people as benefit for the pension funds)

Winner 1997: Wohlstandsmüll (welfare garbage, meaning people unwilling or unable to work)

Winner 1996: Rentnerschwemme (flood of retirees, describing the fact, that the percentage of old people will increase in the future)

[Spiffor]

Sozialverträgliches Frühableben

[lord of the mark]

"Winner 2004: Humankapital (human capital, debasing humans as mere economical factor)"

human capital in English is mainly used by economists, and has no connotations of debasing. Its a useful analytic concept representing the fact that investments in education and skills(whether by individuals, or by society) can be more productive than investments in machinery, etc. Indeed, politically the term tends to be used by relative progressives ("instead of tax cuts, we should be investing in human capital")

[Bereta_Eder]

Re: Interesting foreign phrases.

Originally posted by Oerdin
Do any of you know new words which don't translate well into English?

most don't translate good in english.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by molly bloom

I also enjoyed the Moroccan one, that a meal was so expensive, it cost him his eyes.

It seems that eyes are valued highly in several societies. We have a danish expression "det koster det hvide ud af øjnene" - roughly translating to "costs the white of your eyes". Though not restrained to a meal, but to anything costly.

[Wernazuma III]

In Spanish you can also say "Vale un ojo de la cara" "It's worth an eye of your face" to express the same.

[Spiffor]

In French you say "Ca lui a coûté la peau des fesses" for the same, i.e. "it costed him the skinn of his butt"

[Bereta_Eder]

in english they say "it's raining cats and dogs"
what an absurd statement when they can say what we say: the logical: vrechei kareklopodara (it's raining chair legs)

[Lul Thyme]

Same in french, you can say something cost you an eye or an arm.