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egkisu-kisu (Maguindanaon, Philippines) to move the buttocks little by little

pinginyika (Swahili) to move the buttocks with a circular motion when walking or dancing

Milk bottles

When it comes to the legs, English has no word to describe the back of the knee. Irish Gaelic calls it the ioscaid, the Swedes knäveck, while the Native American Dakota language calls it hunyoka-khmin. Other languages are similarly descriptive about both the appearance and the movement of our lower half:

euischios (Ancient Greek) with beautiful hips

melkflessen (Dutch) bare legs which have not been suntanned (literally, milk bottles)

kerchiholl (Albanian) having thin lower legs

anyula (Tsonga, South Africa) to open one’s legs indecently

hiza ga warau (Japanese) the wobbly feeling you have in your legs after dashing up several flights of stairs (literally, my knees are laughing)

Thin as a rake

When it comes to the whole package, there are differences of opinion about how substantial you should be. In general, the modern world applauds the skinny, even as our languages hark back to a less prosperous age in their comparisons:

ser magro como um palito (Portuguese) to be as thin as a toothpick

zo mager als een lat zijn (Dutch) to be as thin as a wooden latch

po ru zhu (Mandarin) thin as paper

flaco como un güin (Cuban Spanish) thin as a sugar-cane flower

kostur slab (Macedonian) thin as a skeleton

loksh (Yiddish) a noodle, a tall thin person

Bacon buoy

While fatties come in for all kinds of criticism:

vuthikithiki (Tsonga, South Africa) body fat which shakes at every step

juyaku-bara (Japanese) a paunch (literally, company director’s stomach)

tivili (Sinhala, Sri Lanka) a person with three dents in his belly (from fatness)

foca (Spanish) a very fat woman (literally, a seal)

yongzhong (Chinese) too fat and clumsy to move

gordo como una buoya (Cuban Spanish) fat as a buoy

abspecken (German) losing weight (literally, de-baconing)

fai prima a saltargli sopra che girargli intorno (Italian) it’s faster to jump over him than go round him (because he’s so fat)

Illusory

Not, of course, that you can always judge from appearances:

Sitzriese (German) someone who is actually quite short but looks tall when they’re sitting down (literally, sitting giant)

edtiudan (Maguindanaon, Philippines) to pretend to be lame

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

rozhdennyj polzat letat ne mozhet (Russian) if you’re born to crawl you can’t fly

on ne peut faire d’une buse un épervier (French) you can’t turn a buzzard into a sparrowhawk

al draagt een aap een gouden ring, het is en blijft een lelijk ding (Dutch) even if the monkey wears a golden ring it remains ugly

fare le nozze con i fichi secchi (Italian) to celebrate a wedding with dried figs

10.

Dressed to Kill

siku utakayokwenda uchi ndiyo siku utakayokutana na mkweo (Swahili)

the day you decide to leave your house naked is the day you run into your in-laws

A memorable smile

Whatever Nature has provided you with, you always have the chance to make your own improvements:

sulong (Iban, Sarawak and Brunei) to decorate the front teeth with gold (formerly brass)

nyin-susu (Bambara, West Africa) to blacken someone’s gums for cosmetic purposes

pen bilong maus (Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea) lipstick

False friends

Rock (German) skirt

veste (French) jacket

romp (Afrikaans) skirt

cilinder (Hungarian) top hat

gulp (Dutch) fly (in trousers)

Hairdressed to kill

And hair is one very obvious place for the drastic makeover:

rikuruto-katto (Japanese) a short haircut supposed to impress prospective employers (literally, recruit cut)

wu-masweeswe (Kalanga, Botswana) shaving the hair in a sinuous outline across the forehead

emperifollado(a) (Latin American Spanish) dressed to kill, particularly when it involves a complicated hairdo

Topfschnitt (German) a certain haircut that looks a bit as if the hairdresser put a saucepan on someone’s head and cut all around it (literally,