Interesting foreign phrases.

[Gangerolf]

I'm sure I hear this one daily: "Nesten skyter ingen av hesten" - "Almost shoots nobody off the horse".

It rhymes in Norwegian and means something like "almost is not good enough".

Another interesting one is "ugler i mosen" - "owls in the moss". This is said when you sense that something fishy is going on

[molly bloom]

Some British English obscenities and euphemisms:

'acorn' - the glans penis

'scut'- female pubic hair

'norma snockers' - large breasts

'nuts'- testes, derived from abbreviating 'nutmeg', teh shape of which obviously reminded people of the testicle.

'knackers'- testes again, also used in 'knackers' yard', with a reference to gelding = losing potency = no longer useful. Seems to be derived from the mediaeval kettledrums, the nakers, used at marriage feasts and for dance music, held at the waist, or in front of the crotch, and played in pairs.

'khyber'- Cockney or army slang, 'khyber pass' = arse.

'knee trembler'- sexual intercourse, usually quick and standing up. First recorded around the middle of the Nineteenth Century.

'Gor Blimey!'- exclamation, euphemised version of 'God blind me' .

'Gosh!'- in the Sixteenth Century, also written as 'Gosse!', = God!

[mindseye]

There are zillions in Chinese, a couple favorites:

blow an ox v@gina - to boast or brag (it's a common everyday phrase!)

provinces helping the central gov't - a combover hairstyle (the phrase is much shorter in Chinese)

[Az]

Originally posted by Dauphin
The French expresson for 'window shopper' translates directly as meaning windowlicker.

(?)

Ahh, now I know what's the meaning of that aphex twin track!

[Zoid]

Another rural swedish phrase. "A lot of screaming for a small amount of wool, said the old woman when she cut the hair of the pig"

[Az]

That's awesome!

[Spiffor]

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Dr Zoidberg
Another rural swedish phrase. "A lot of screaming for a small amount of wool, said the old woman when she cut the hair of the pig"

I've never heard of this one

[Locutus]

My local dialect, Twents, has a few interesting words.

Most famous in the rest of the Netherlands is without a doubt "brommers kiek'n", which literraly means "watching mopeds"'. It means as much as getting some privacy to make out. A bit like "getting a room" in English, I guess, though in English that's usually used to indicate something people should do ("Oh, get a room, you two!"), while in Twents it's used to either suggest doing it ("Will you come with me to go brommers kiek'n?") or something that people are actually doing ("Where are they going? - Brommers kiek'n")

We also have "joaknikker", which litterally means someone who nods yes. It means as much as yesman, something that exists in many languages. But in Twents we also have "neeknikker", 'someone who nods no', which means a really stubborn person.

We also have Jasanenoptoesan, it's one word but it means 'put on your coat and let's go home'.

Not really a unique word, but we also have 'luliezer', litteraly "c*ck iron", which is a mobile phone (in Twents/Dutch 'lullen', lit. 'to c*ck' actually means to talk bull****). A regular phone is called 'kuierdroad', lit. 'chat wire'. On a similar note we have, 'reuriezer' or 'stir iron' which is a spoon and 'huulbessem' litteraly means something like 'noisy broom', which is a vacuum cleaner.

Twents idiom is can be interesting as well:

Dom bi-j pas a-j ‘t zölf neet in de gaatn hebt
You're only stupid when you're not aware of it.

Oald wörden is mooi, oald wean aait neet.
It's nice to grow old, it's not nice to be old.

Dikke leu leaft ’t kötst, mear zit langer an toafel.
Fat people die sooner, but spend more time having dinner.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Henrik



I've never heard of this one

Maybe it´s local? "Mycket skrik för lite ull sa kärringen när hon klippte grisen" is quite a common phrase in parts of Western Sweden (ie Västergötland).

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by mindseye
blow an ox v@gina - to boast or brag (it's a common everyday phrase!)

Hm, the standard form is "blow cattle" or "blow cattle skin"

[Atahualpa]

The spanish have several meanings for the word "cojones" (balls)...
"Cojonudo" e.g. describes something awesome.. if something is worth "un cojon" it means very very precious... or you can also say "un huevo y parte de otro" (one egg and part of the other). "dos cojones" (two eggs = balls) means bravery and valor. "tres cojones" (three eggs).. e.g. "me importa tres cojones" means that you don't care at all.

Another thing that is equivalent to "Cojonudo" is "de puta madre", which they also put to describe something totally awesome/cool/good/...


A german word that erupted to describe awesome things is "geil" which actually means "fatty", but nobody associates the word with that. Another meaning is "horny".
This has found it's ways into commercials and one retailer claims "Geist ist geil" (greed is great)...
Because of this and because the word had a rather short life overall it's not used so much anymore, but you can still hear it.

[Harovan]

It's "Geiz ist geil". The meaning of the word geil is almost 100% "horny", I don't even know the "fatty" option. Among the slang of the youth it has the meaning "great", as you mentioned. By the way, Geiz does not meen greed (that would be Gier), but rather thriftiness, stinginess.

There is a phrase in some parts of Germany "(irgendwo) einen Koffer stehenlassen" - to leave a suitcase standing (somewhere) - which has the meaning to have farted there and walked away with an innocent face.

[Gangerolf]

*prrrrtthth* *foul stench*
Person A: "Who farted?"

Person B: "Den som fisen først er vár, den er fisens rette far!"
Person A: "Den som sier disse ord, den er fisens rette mor!"

which means something like:
"He who first notices the fart, is the fart's real father!"
"He who utters those words, is the fart's real mother!"

It's about playing the blame game when someone farts. I'm sure this exists in other languages too.

But: and I've given this some thought:
maybe it's also about somthing deeper in society,
that someone who first notices a problem (no matter who really created it) is responsible for it.

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
It's "Geiz ist geil". The meaning of the word geil is almost 100% "horny", I don't even know the "fatty" option. Among the slang of the youth it has the meaning "great", as you mentioned. By the way, Geiz does not meen greed (that would be Gier), but rather thriftiness, stinginess.

There is a phrase in some parts of Germany "(irgendwo) einen Koffer stehenlassen" - to leave a suitcase standing (somewhere) - which has the meaning to have farted there and walked away with an innocent face.

yes, I meant Geiz and not Geist

I am pretty sure about the fatty thing, because that's what people told us when we were young and everything was "geil".