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On reflection

German Blues

The idioms of the world are full of colour. But in Germany ‘blue’ has a rich range of uses:

blaue vom Himmel herunter lügen to lie constantly (literally, to lie the blue out of the sky)

grün und blau ärgern sich to see red (literally, to anger oneself green and blue)

blau machen to take a day off (literally, to make blue)

blau sein to be drunk (literally, to be blue)

mit einem blauen Auge davon kommen to get off unscathed (literally, to get away with a blue eye)

ein blaues Auge a black eye (literally, a blue eye)

die blaue Stunde the time before dusk especially during winter (literally, the blue hour)

Tee-hee

Sometimes, indeed, more than the right results:

bungisngís (Tagalog, Philippines) one who giggles at the slightest provocation

ngisngis (Manobo, Philippines) someone who cannot control his laughter

latterkrampe (Norwegian) convulsive laughter

mengare (Gilbertese, Oceania) a forced laugh, to laugh on the wrong side of one’s mouth

tirebouchonnant (French) extremely funny (literally, like a corkscrew – as one takes in air repeatedly to laugh)

mémêstátamaò’o (Cheyenne, USA) to laugh so hard that you fart

No potato

In the Arab world they distinguish between those who are goodhumoured, damak khafeef, literally, their blood is light, and the opposite, damak tieel, their blood is heavy. But however wellmeaning, humour always carries the risk of failure:

pikun (Kapampangan, Philippines) one who cannot take a joke

nye kartoshka (Russian) no joking matter (literally, no potato)

jayus (Indonesian) someone who tries to make a joke which is so unfunny that you laugh anyway

Pulling your nose

The different expressions for ‘pulling someone’s leg’ reveal subtle distinctions in approaches to teasing. For the Germans it’s jemandem einen Bären aufbinden, literally, to fasten a bear onto someone; for the French it’s mettre en boite, to put someone in a box. The Spanish pull your hair (tomar el pelo), the Finns pull your nose (vetää nenästä), while the Czechs go one further and hang balls on your nose (věšet bulíky na nos).

Worry-wart

But better, surely, to laugh at your troubles than live on your nerves:

bēi gōng shé yng (Chinese) worrying about things that aren’t there (literally, seeing the reflection of a bow in a cup and thinking it’s a snake)

qaquablaabnaqtuq (Iñupiat, Inuit) to be tense because of an impending unpleasantness

doki doki (Japanese) the feeling of great anxiety when someone is about to do or doing something very nerve-racking

hira hira (Japanese) the feeling you get when you walk into a dark and decrepit old house in the middle of the night

como cocodrilo en fabrica de carteras (Puerto Rican Spanish) to be extremely nervous (literally, to be like a crocodile in a wallet factory)

No balls

We all aspire to zanshin (Japanese), a state of relaxed mental alertness in the face of danger; but for most of us our reactions are all too human when bad things really do happen:

les avoir à zéro (French) to be frightened (literally, to have one’s testicles down to zero)

ngua mat (Vietnamese) unable to stand something shocking

khankhanana (Tsonga, South Africa) to fall backwards rigid (as in a fit or from extreme fright)

jera (Indonesian) so scared by a past experience that one will never want to do it again

Spider on the ceiling

Then again, rather be healthily scared than driven round the bend:

keçileri kaçirma (Turkish) to lose one’s marbles (literally, to kidnap the goats)

avoir une araignée au plafond (French) to be crazy (literally, to have a spider on the ceiling)

lud ko struja (Serbian) crazy as electricity

más loco que un plumero (Spanish) crazier than a feather duster

vrane su mu popile mozak (Croatian) he’s crazy (literally, cows have drunk his brain)

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

A sandwich short of a picnic

šplouchá mu na maják (Czech) it’s splashing on his lighthouse

hij heeft een klap van de molen gehad (Dutch) he got a blow from the windmill

ne pas avoir inventé le fil à couper le beurre (French)