I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [94]
facile come bere un bicchier d’acqua (Italian) as easy as drinking a glass of water
asameshi mae (Japanese) before breakfast (something that’s so easy, you could finish it before breakfast)
nuwoseo tdeokmeokki (Korean) lying on one’s back and eating rice cakes
tereyağýndan kýl çeker gibi (Turkish) as if pulling a strand of hair from butter
ežiku ponjatno (Russian) understandable to a hedgehog
21.
The Criminal Life
le diable chie toujours au même endroit (French)
the devil always shits in the same place
Tea leaf
Why work, or even gamble for that matter, when there are far easier ways of enriching yourself ?
lipoushka (Russian) a stick with a gluey end for stealing money from a counter (literally, flypaper)
butron (Spanish) a type of jacket with inner pockets worn by shoplifters
levare le scarpe (Italian) to steal the tyres from a car (literally, to take someone else’s shoes off)
rounstow (Scots) to cut off the ears of a sheep, and so obliterate its distinctive marks of ownership
False friends
bait (Arabic) incentive or motive
egg (Norwegian, Swedish) knife edge
gulp (Afrikaans) to slit, gush, spout
guru (Japanese) a partner in crime
plaster (Hebrew) deceitful or fraudulent
roof (Dutch) robbery
Gangland
Although once you step over that line, who knows what company you may be forced to keep:
ladenlichter (Dutch) a till-robber
pisau cukur (Malay) a female hustler who cons men into giving her money
harza-duzd (Persian) someone who steals something of no use to him or anyone else
adukalipewo (Mandinka, West Africa) a highway robber (literally, give me the purse)
belochnik (Russian) a thief specializing in stealing linen off clothes lines (this was very lucrative in the early 1980s)
Scissorhand
Considerable skill, experience and bravado may be required for success:
forbice (Italian) pickpocketing by putting the index and middle fingers into the victim’s pocket (literally, scissors)
cepat tangan (Malay) quick with the hands (in pickpocketing or shoplifting or hitting someone)
poniwata (Korean) a victim who at first glance looks provincial and not worth robbing, but on closer scrutiny shows definite signs of hidden wealth
komissar (Russian) a robber who impersonates a police officer
And sometimes even magic:
walala (Luvale, Zambia) a thieves’ fetish which is supposed to keep people asleep while the thief steals
za-koosirik (Buli, Ghana) a person who transfers the plants of a neighbour’s field to his own by magic
On reflection
Lost in translation
In their eagerness to move into and conquer new markets, many huge Western companies forgot to do their homework. When the name Microsoft was first translated into Chinese, they went for a literal translation of the two parts of the name which, unfortunately, meant ‘small and flaccid’.
Pepsi’s famous slogan ‘Come Alive with Pepsi’ was dropped in China after it was translated as ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave’.
When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first-class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its ‘Fly in Leather’ campaign literally, but vuela en cuero meant ‘Fly Naked’ in Spanish.
Colgate introduced in France a toothpaste called Cue, the name of a notorious pornographic magazine.
Coca-Cola was horrified to discover that its name was first read by the Chinese as kekoukela, meaning either ‘bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse stuffed with wax’, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent – kokou kole – which translates as ‘happiness in the mouth’
Kindling
Their trains and tubes are punctual to the nearest second; equal efficiency seems to characterize those Japanese who take criminal advantage of such crowded environments:
nakanuku, inside pull-out: to carefully slip one’s hand into a victim’s trouser pocket, draw out the wallet, flick it open, whip out cash and credit cards, close it and slip it back into the victim’s trouser pocket
oitore, walking next to a well-dressed victim, plunging a razor-sharp