Interesting foreign phrases.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by molly bloom
'to kill the goose that lays the golden egg'

'robbing Peter to pay Paul'

I have only heard of these two. Our equivalent of the latter phrase is "robbing the Dutch to give tribute to the French."

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Some British English phrases for the bemusement of non-English speakers:

Exhibiting our love of our European neighbours:

'to take French leave'

'engaging in Spanish practices'

'a Dutch auction'

'a Dutch uncle'

'Dutch courage'

'to go Dutch'

'castles in Spain'

'it's all Greek to me'

'jerry-built' although seeming on the face of it to perhaps refer to the Germans (jerry=Germans) seems to derive from the same root as 'jury', as in 'jury-rigged'.

You forgot "French letter" (excellently, the French equivalent is "une capote anglaise"), "double Dutch" (now also a brand of lager), "Chinese burn" and "give someone the Spanish archer".

[Az]

Some funny young hebrew/Israeli expressions:

"It's a waste of time" - something excellent.
"End of the Road" ,"Bombs to the eyebrows", "Shrapnel to the eyelashes", "Son of a whore" - ditto.

[alva]

Originally posted by duke o' york


You forgot "French letter" (excellently, the French equivalent is "une capote anglaise"), "double Dutch" (now also a brand of lager), "Chinese burn" and "give someone the Spanish archer".

If I'm not mistaken, the "french disease" (syphilis) is called the "English disease" in france too.

[duke o' york]

To take French leave is also a direct opposite in France.

You see, we love each other sooooo much!
Maybe that's just me then.

Do the Irish and Belgians (the respective butts of English and French "dumb person" jokes) share a similar love?

[Winston]

Originally posted by molly bloom
I can't think of any pejorative English phrases with the word 'Belgian' in.

An old Monty Python skit raised the very same problem. As I recall, in search of a proper derogatory term they rejected both "the Sprouts" and "the Phlegms", eventually settling for "miserable fat Belgian bastards".

[duke o' york]

"The brewers" might be more appropriate.

[Winston]

Originally posted by alva
Another fun one is that the french say 15 days when they mean 14.

15 jours = two weeks.

We have the same thing for 1 week, which is referred to as 8 days. "PÃ¥ mandag 8 dage" (Monday 8 days) means a week from next Monday. But two weeks is still 14 days, as it should be.

[duke o' york]

Damned non-Gregorian calendars!

[Chemical Ollie]

During the boycot of anything French back in the "1999 anti-nuclear bomb testing in the pacific" days, my wife and I didn't drink any French wine, drive any French cars or eat any artichokes. Really, we didn't even give any French massage to each other... That sucked.

[duke o' york]

I only drink French wine. Period. French massage, on the other hand, I have other things in mind to spend my time on.

[Provost Harrison]

Any French kissing?

[duke o' york]

No thanks, Provost, even if I was that way inclined.

[Provost Harrison]

Damn, an unfortunate cross-post there

[mindseye]

Recently I came across "it's all swings and byways" which seemed to mean "six of one, half a dozen of the other."

Is this a Britism, Cockney, or Oz-speak? Anyone know what the "swings" refer to?