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Schlürfbude (German) a fast-food restaurant (literally, slurp dump)

dolorosa (Spanish) a restaurant bill (literally, painful)

Abendteuer (German) an expensive evening (literally, an adventure)

The condemned man is a final meal

Possibly the strangest takeaway of all is described by the Russian word korova: this is the unfortunate person that prison camp escapees take with them to eat over their period of flight and in their hideout (it literally means ‘a cow’).

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

Too many cooks spoil the broth

sendou ooku shite fune yama ni noboru (Japanese) too many captains and the boat will go up a mountain

qi shou, ba jiao (Chinese) seven hands, eight feet

idha kathira ar-rababina gharigat as-safina (Arabic) too many captains sink the ship

zo mangna go lhong mi tshu (Dzongkha, Bhutan) when there are too many carpenters the door cannot be erected

seul mui à vugulion a vez, e vez falloc’h gouarnet ar saout (Breton, France) the more cowherds there are, the worse the cows are looked after

puno baba, kilavo dijete (Croatian) with many midwives, the child will be lazy

veel varkens maken de spoeling dun (Dutch) many pigs make the slops sparse

zyada jogi math ujaad (Hindi) too many saints can ruin the monastery

troppi galli a cantar non fa mai giorno (Italian) with too many cocks singing it is never going to dawn

zuun yamaand jaran uhana (Mongolian) one hundred goats for sixty billy goats

u pyati nyanek dyetya byez glaza, u cemyorykh – byez golovy (Russian) when there are five nurses the child loses an eye – with seven nurses the child is finally found to lack a head

haber más capeadores que toros (Costa Rican Spanish) there are more bullfighters than bulls

15.

One for the Road

fra børn og fulde folk skal man høre sandheden (Danish)

from children and drunks you will hear the truth

The towel of a hippy

The quenching of thirst is another sensation that brings out evocative descriptions. In Chilean Spanish they say they are tener mas sed que piojo de muneca, thirstier than a louse on a doll; or again, in more contemporary usage, toalla hippy, than the towel of a hippy:

tarfa (Hausa, Nigeria) to pour out drop by drop

gargalacar (Portuguese) to drink from the bottle

funda (Swahili) to fill the mouth with water until the cheeks are distended

srann (Gaelic) a drink as deep as one’s breath will permit

ngalela (Setswana, Botswana) to drink and drain the contents of a container in one go

avoir la dalle en pente (French) to have the throat on a slant (in order to be able to drink constantly)

The milky way

The men of the African Toubari and Massa tribes observe a rite called gourouna in which they retire for several months from ordinary pursuits and restraints and drink prodigious amounts of milk.

Social drinking

No one should boire en Suisse (French), drink alone in secret (literally, drinking in the Swiss way). It’s always healthier to share the experience:

gonets (Russian) one sent to buy alcohol for friends (literally, a herald)

chistra (Breton, France) to go from farm to farm and ask for cider

cayetanas (Mexican Spanish) a code word for apple cider disguised in a beer bottle, ordered by cabaret hostesses who don’t want to get drunk

afdrinken (Dutch) let’s have a drink and be friends

glaoch (Irish) the act of calling for a round of drinks at a pub

Bob (Dutch) the designated driver, the one who sticks to one beer and drives everybody home from wherever they’ve been partying (Bob was the name used originally in a famous anti-drink-drive campaign)

Altered states

Soft drinks will satisfy our thirst, but are never as exciting as those which are a bit stronger. It’s surely no coincidence that most of the best words about drinks and drinking involve alcohol. As the literal meaning of the Amerindian Mingo word for alcohol, teka’niköëtényös, has it, it changes minds from one way to another: whether it’s beer you’re drinking …

sampa (Rukwangali, Namibia) to taste beer with one’s finger

bufferbiertje (Dutch) the beer