I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [61]
kacang lupakan kulit (Malay) a man who refuses to acknowledge his background and forgets his family or friends once he has made a fortune for himself
IDIOMS OF THE WORLD
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
telan mati emak, luah mati bapa (Malay) if you swallow it your mother will die, if you throw it up your father will die
estar entre a espada e a parede (Portuguese) to be between the sword and the wall
tussen twee vuren staan (Dutch) to be between two fires
byt mezhdu molotom i nakovalnyei (Russian) between hammer and anvil
wählen zwischen Hölle und Fegefeuer (German) to choose between hell and purgatory
se correr o bicho pega e se ficar o bicho (Portuguese) if you run, the animal will catch you, if you stay it will eat you
eddyr daa stoyl ta toyn er laare (Manx, Isle of Man) between two stools your arse is on the floor
8.
Kids
ogni scarafone è bello a mamma sua (Italian)
every mother likes her own beetle
Pragmatic future
When it comes to the prospect of having children, the Japanese have brought the vocabulary firmly into the twenty-first century:
kondoumukeikaku the way in which some women over thirty-five have unprotected sex with strangers to have children
nakayoshi ninpu (buddy pregnancy) describes the act of two women deliberately getting pregnant at the same time so that they can experience childbirth together (literally, pregnancy-now plan)
shoshika a future society without children
Warped
From the moment a woman conceives, a new life has begun – for the one in the womb, obviously, but also for the mother. French metaphors take particular notice of her difference in appearance: she has tombée sur un clou rouillé, fallen on a rusty nail, and thus swollen; or, to put it another way, she has begun gondoler sur la devanture, to warp from the display window:
ubháya-siras (Sanskrit) two-headed, a pregnant female
ajamonarse (Spanish) used to describe a pregnant woman’s increase in size (literally, to be like a ham)
proglotit’ arbouz (Russian) to become pregnant (literally, to swallow a watermelon)
Longings
She starts to feel differently too:
dohada (Sanskrit) the longing of a pregnant woman for particular objects
afa-dratsiaina (Malagasy, Madagascar) the condition of a pregnant woman who has eaten what she had a great longing for
A mark of frustration
When a Maltese pregnant woman has a wish, one should try to satisfy her, or else the baby will be born with a large mole on its face; this is known as it-tebgħa tax-xewqa, the wish mark.
Paternity leave
In some African tribes the men will take to their beds for the entire duration of their wife’s pregnancy, while the women continue to work as usual until a few hours before giving birth. This is called couvade (from the French word meaning, literally, brooding or hatching). The men believe that they are cleverer and stronger than women and so are better able to defend unborn children against evil spirits. Prone in his bed, the husband simulates the pains that the wife actually undergoes. Following the birth of the child, he keeps to his bed and receives all the attentions which in other societies are bestowed upon the mother. Variations of this behaviour have been seen in such diverse places as Papua New Guinea, Bolivia and the Basque districts of Northern Spain and South-West France.
Those who comes divided
The Fon people of Benin are particularly enthusiastic about twins. All twins are regarded as separate parts of a single being so their birth signals the arrival of mabassa, those who comes divided. They also believe that some babies may refuse to be born. Just before birth, the elder of a set of twins is said to peek out of the womb to survey the outside world. If it determines that the world is unsafe, it returns to the womb to report to its sibling. The twins may then refuse their delivery. If one twin dies, a small wooden image of the deceased must be carried by the mother and cared for at all times. All gifts to the survivor must be duplicated: one for the living twin and one for