Idioms Idolatry
Posted on August 30th, 2005 in Usability | 3 Comments »
Despite the international audience of WebWord I find that I consistently and constantly use idioms. My expressions are probably very difficult for non-native English speakers to grasp yet I still use them.
The problem is that idioms are so easy to use. It’s as easy as pie to use them. The related problem is that idioms seem to capture something that other “normal” phrases do not.
What idioms do you use? What are some good non-English idioms?
3 Responses
I tend to favor the ones that don’t actually make sense when you stop to think about them… “Cute as a Button” and “Happy as a Clam” spring to mind. I’ve always found kittens to be much cuter than buttons and how does one measure the relative mood of the average clam anyway?
In this weeks New Yorker, Calvin Trillin writes
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050905fa_fact
“…the Spanish equivalent of “You’re pulling my leg” is “You’re taking my hair”—one of my teachers told me of some demonstrators who, as a symbol of not wanting to be lied to by the government anymore, appeared in front of a government building with shaved heads—or that Ecuadorans who want to leave well enough alone say that they don’t want to look for the fifth paw of the cat.”
I constantly find situations where people “don’t have their oars in the water”! I just love the imagery of that.