What’s a phrase or expression Americans use that doesn’t translate well outside the US?
Posted by Milos_shka@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1149 comments
I’ve been living here for a little while, and I’ve heard a few. Especially “it’s not my first rodeo” when translated into my language sounds so confusing and sarcastic.
Or saying “Break a leg” sounds mean or crazy. Instead we say ‘Ни пуха ни пера’ and when translated literally, it means “Neither fluff nor feather” meaning good luck.
So I’m curious what other expressions are the most confusing for foreigners to hear, and maybe where they come from
Morrigoon@reddit
Any reference to “an E-ticket ride”
tacitjane@reddit
"I ain't seen ya since you were knee-high to a grasshopper."
The last time we met you were a small child.
Bubba_Gump_Shrimp@reddit
Knee high to a duck is also common. Also like water off a ducks back. Also is a frogs ass water tight? And does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? Does a duck with a boner drag weeds? Does the tin man have a sheet metal cock? Is water wet? Does howdy doody have a wooden cock? All mean hell yes.
Other fun ones: I'm gonna fold you like a cheap suit: I'm going to knock you out.
He's toughern a $2 steak
It's coldern a witches tittty in a brass bra.
Its hottern 2 mice fuckin in a wool sock.
Busier that a one armed wallpaper hanger
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
ivory_dragon@reddit
Closer than a witches titty in a brass bra layin face down in the snow.
Bubba_Gump_Shrimp@reddit
Suckin on ice cubes
tacitjane@reddit
HA! That last line had me reeling. Me ol' pastor was in the Marines.
Before he started his sermons he led us with his modified creed: "This is my bible. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my best friend. It is my life."
Particular-Ebb-6428@reddit
This one does translate, but I just love it so much that I’m putting it here anyway. “Between a rock and a hard place” in Spanish is basically “between the sword and the wall”
GoCougs2020@reddit
Between a rock and a hard place Red wine and mistakes Tears rolling down your face when I walked out that door.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
I've heard "which eye would you like the sharp stick in?"
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
That's a biblical reference about having a splinter in your eye.
KevrobLurker@reddit
More, Odyssey: Noman is killing me!
Mary-U@reddit
My dad would ask
a poke in the eye or a punch in the nose
Also,
Well, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
(i don’t know why poking eyes was a thing)
Bright_Ices@reddit
This just reminds me: I once had a phlebotomist come in to do a finger stick blood test. She opened with, “Which finger do you hate?” It was so unexpected, which added to the humor.
Agheratos@reddit
The Romans had a version of this, too:
"Before you, a cliff, Behind you, wolves"
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
I think there's a reference similar in Dante's Inferno.
SavannahInChicago@reddit
I mean a sword will always be cooler than a rock
oily_fish@reddit
In English we also have "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
AlveolarFricatives@reddit
Doesn’t “rock and a hard place” come from “between Scylla and Charybdis” in the Odyssey? I feel like the rock wall and the whirlpool and the sea monsters are very vivid!
prometheus_winced@reddit
Hypnotized by you if I should linger Staring at the ring around your finger
Unicoronary@reddit
There’s two potentials. Technically three.
That one.
The Roman version referencing something else (“cliffs before you and wolves behind.”)
Or it’s from Roman commentary on Odyssey.
OragneBoi@reddit
I'm Polish we say "between a hammer and an anvil"
gladiatrix14@reddit
Never heard this one before as a native Spanish speaker (Puerto Rico). Gracias por compartir 🤗
Particular-Ebb-6428@reddit
Sí! “Entre la espada y la pared”
jseego@reddit
HELLO!!
Dottie85@reddit
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Bright_Ices@reddit
Close, but not the same meaning.
Unicoronary@reddit
Dancing around like spit in a frying pan.
Shiney_Metal_Ass@reddit
That's...... That's different
exitparadise@reddit
I don't know if "sword and wall" capture the same nuance as "rock and a hard place" (i think)... rocks and hard places are basically the same thing, so when you say "I'm caught between a rock and a hard place" you're not just saying a difficult situation... but implying that you're in a situation where all your options or ways out are equally bad.
Weightmonster@reddit
I always thought it was between a rock and a HEART place
Auro_NG@reddit
What would that even mean? Lol
MistraloysiusMithrax@reddit
That Americans are lazy at pronouncing their d’s and t’s, and the commenter did not read about mythology as a child. That’s what it means lol
kaatie80@reddit
Coming from a place of love maybe? Lol
fshagan@reddit
I had a co-worker from the Philippines who asked me what a "brown noser" was. It's really kind of gross to explain.
Unusual_Form3267@reddit
Not me reading this realizing at age 33 why they are called brown nosers....
I never knew guys.
Bother_said_Pooh@reddit
I also figured it out as an adult. I actually thought it must mean something else than that because of how casually people say it.
mittenknittin@reddit
When I was a kid, I knew people who would get in trouble for saying “That sucks” because of what was implied as being “sucked.” These days I don’t think it even registers for most people.
Relevant-Tourist8974@reddit
We couldn't say it in school either unless we said what it sucks. Our teacher made us say "that sucks canal water."
TheNavigatrix@reddit
I like the “that sucks donkey balls” version. Given the appropriate audience.
ApprehensiveAd9014@reddit
Bingo!
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
I remember when that phrase was gaining traction and how many people used it. I wondered if they EVER thought about what they were saying and where it came from? Hello?
lainiezensane@reddit
I remember the first time I heard it on TV in high school. I was so shocked. (It was an episode of The Hogan Family for anyone wondering.)
mittenknittin@reddit
The one that shocks me these days is “rawdogging.” It’s already moving into the mainstream and in 10-15 years it will be used so casually that people will be like “Wait, THAT’s what it’s referring to? I had no idea, I thought it was about not cooking your hot dogs”
Swimminginthestorm@reddit
Yeah. I have a dirty mouth, but I was still a bit shocked when that just became a normal thing to say.
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
Yup! When I was a kid, my best friend’s mom used puffy paint to correct one of his tshirts from saying ‘TENNIS SUCKS.’ to saying ‘TENNIS SOCKS’. 😅 Absolutely bananas behavior, in my 10 year old opinion, when I otherwise really loved that lady.
Creepy_Juggernaut_56@reddit
I had a boss whom I loved and my whole team loved. His humor was kind of exuberantly juvenile but in an innocent and PG-rated way. He would do stuff like put inflatable sharks in my cubicle when I went on vacation. He didn't drink, didn't smoke, etc. He was never ever sexually inappropriate or dirty in any way.
Except... When he would come back from meetings and brag to the team about winning an argument on behalf of our team, he would get to the punchline about how we won, clap his hands and go "So, SUCK IT!!"
It was SO JARRING to hear that from him. The third time it happened, I hedged my bets and said "Um... Suck WHAT, exactly?!"
He turned bright red, and never said it again. Turns out he was using the phrase like a 7-year-old who won a board game, it was generic trash talk, he had not put together that it was a reference to fellatio.
Common-Parsnip-9682@reddit
Yeah, even relatively prim elders would use it.
Unusual_Form3267@reddit
Ahh! Yeah, the casualness is exactly it. I would never have guessed it meant something like that when I've even heard little kids say it.
prole6@reddit
What gets me is the newscasters casually saying, “It’s his turn in the barrel!” when it means to be the victim of an anal gang rape.
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
First time I've heard "IN the barrel". Usually it's "OVER the barrel".
prole6@reddit
Got him/me over the barrel is a completely different saying.
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
But being IN the barrel doesn't reference a gang rape as does a being OVER the barrel. As indicated by a couple of the a anecdotes.
prole6@reddit
Since the joke doesn’t work with “over” the barrel, and it is the joke I and others were talking about…
Not to mention nothing about being over the barrel alluded to anything except someone’s interpretation.
Improvident__lackwit@reddit
In what context would a newscaster say that? Lol I’m trying to imagine what story would prompt that line.
Please_Daddy_@reddit
Same! lol
prole6@reddit
When a politician has a field day denouncing an opponent but later the table is turned.
Improvident__lackwit@reddit
Okay yeah that’s not appropriate for a newscast lol. I’d love to have heard it live!
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
Im 46 and this comment was literally the first time I’d heard “in the barrel”
LesterMcGuire@reddit
There's an old joke about a miner that goes to a camp in Alaska with no women. The older mines tell him to go outside of camp and stick your dick in the barrel at the side of the road. He has a great time. Does this for a few nights, then one night- nothing. Goes back to the camp and asks the old timers what happened- they reply "well tonight, it's your turn in the barrel"
Used in reference to when all the work falls on you.
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
Yeah I looked it up and saw the joke but with sailors.
LesterMcGuire@reddit
Well, when you first join the navy- you are referred to as a seaman.
Please_Daddy_@reddit
Yes, why do sharks like pineapples? Because it makes the seamen taste better lmao that one always confuses my foreign friends!
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
Mamma always said you are what you eat
PopcornyColonel@reddit
OMG, that's hilarious!
dehydratedrain@reddit
Same. I would assume it meant something like 'his turn to go over the edge' (too many Niagara Falls visits?), or something about shooting fish in a barrel, or even it is his turn to get pickled (drunk).
Butt stuff wouldn't have made my top 10 guesses.
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
Tbf I think it’s mouth stuff. lol
Froggirl26@reddit
Same
fried_clams@reddit
Can confirm, Im 62 and this comment was literally the first time I’d heard “in the barrel”. WTF?
SpookyBeck@reddit
Me too i think. I first thought (just now) it meant getting easily shot like fish in a barrel.
Bright_Ices@reddit
Newscasters say that?! I’ve never heard it outside the context of the dumb joke it comes from, but you have some wild newscasters there in Indiana.
prole6@reddit
I’m talking mostly MSNBC & CNN!
Bright_Ices@reddit
Huh. Never heard it.
la-anah@reddit
I think "in the barrel" is oral, like a glory hole. "Over the barrel" is anal. But it can also mean getting whipped/flogged.
prole6@reddit
Could be, but still not what you’d expect Tom Brokaw to be saying on air.
la-anah@reddit
Oh, I agree. There are a lot of things said casually that have dark meanings. Not sure if it is still a thing, but prison rape jokes used to be common in kids cartoons. I remember an episode of the Powerpuff Girls ending with Mojo Jojo in jail looking nervous as a very large cell mate pulls him closer.
prole6@reddit
I’m sure “Don’t drop the soap” made it past a lot of censors.
Bright_Ices@reddit
We used to say it all the time in the '90s, before anyone bothered to teach about things like consent.
OneleggedPeter@reddit
If you want to know the origin of "his / your turn in barrel', let me know. It's oral, not anal.
prole6@reddit
I have a feeling we just heard different versions of the same joke.
SKatieRo@reddit
For many years I assumed it was saying having a brown nose like a big loyal enthusiastic dog. I pictured a Labrador Retriever who was absolutely devoted to his master and would do anything for him and fawn all over him, like Doug the dog in the movie Up.
AdEastern9303@reddit
Well, when people come over my house, the first thing my lab does is go around and stick his nose in everyone’s ass. So, even without realizing it, your analogy fits.
just_pudge_it@reddit
My Lab does that as well but not just at the house every time she meets a new person. She loves saying hi and getting right in there and she doesn’t just sniff I am talking about whole snout up the butt. I swear one time she lifted an old lady up with her nose. It was so embarrassing.
TychaBrahe@reddit
With the horrors that are the prep for colonoscopies, I would think people would be grateful for the lab test.
turdbugulars@reddit
No your analogy fits his/her doesn’t.
Linzcro@reddit
Haha I did too
HaplessReader1988@reddit
That's sweet and wonderful and much more attractive. New definition in my mind for an old phrase that always kinda grossed me out.
jackaroo1344@reddit
I feel like saying someone has the loyalty of a dog is a compliment though, when brown noser is definitely an insult. I always thought it was gross on purpose in order to show contempt for the person you're insulting
MotherofaPickle@reddit
My dog like to stick her nose in inappropriate places, so that checks out, I guess.
lazygerm@reddit
Lookup the song, "Do the Brown Nose" by Dead Milkmen.
Unusual_Form3267@reddit
No, sir. I will not.
lazygerm@reddit
It's a funny song!
Turbulent_Shoe8907@reddit
You’re so privileged for having put this off for so long! I had it explained to me in the 8th grade. What a concept to have living rent-free in my developing mind!
Unusual_Form3267@reddit
I didn't know what I had until it was too late.
bovisrex@reddit
Dad always said that the difference between a brown-noser and an ass-kisser was a matter of knowing when to quit.
sourbirthdayprincess@reddit
And there is a big difference between peeing in the pool and peeing into the pool: location, location, location.
—Dimitri Martin
Oaken_beard@reddit
In high school French, one of the words we learned was “piscine” which means pool… guess how I was able to remember it.
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
‘La piscine’ is something I randomly say to myself sometimes, ever since taking high school French. lol. It’s one of those random vocab words that stuck with me. (Also ‘anorak’ & ‘cravat’.)
Please_Daddy_@reddit
Mine is arreter lol never forgot it because the stop signs in Montreal all say it. Oh, and fromage lol
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
Haha. I actually didn’t initially realize how much had truly stayed with me until frequenting Canada as an adult. I joke and say it’s only a few vocab words because those jump out at me but, I’ve managed to hang on to more than expected. My fave little experiment is going to Shoppers any time I visit Canada and picking the French setting on the self checkout to practice. 😅
Barneyboydog@reddit
Nice!
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
Thanks! A move to Canada in the near future is in the cards so I’m hoping I’ll be able to practice more once I’m there full time.
Barneyboydog@reddit
Good luck to you!
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
Thank you!
SubUrbanMess2021@reddit
Never forget the fromage.
TigerBaby-93@reddit
Similar in Spanish (piscina) - and that's how I teach my students to remember it.
mdf7g@reddit
Both from the Latin piscina meaning "fish pond" (and hence related to Spanish pez and French poisson).
Apparently at some point people decided to go for a dip in the fish ponds and just kept doing it until the word stuck.
DejaBlonde@reddit
That is actually how my French teacher taught us to remember it 😂
ADDeviant-again@reddit
" I once got caught peeing in the pool, and the lifeguard flew his whistle so loud, I almost fell in."
Emo Philips, I think, but could have been Gary Delaney, Stuart Francis, or Milton Jones.
PopcornyColonel@reddit
Dimitri is a treasure.
brunetteblonde46@reddit
I bet your dad has other gems. 😂😂
JefeRex@reddit
Americans say, “Kiss my ass,” and Germans say, “Lick my ass.” I like that one better.
CarpetLikeCurtains@reddit
I always said that the difference between a kiss-ass and a brown noser is depth perception
ParticularLack6400@reddit
Depth perception.
big_sugi@reddit
Nah. The difference is depth perception.
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
An ass kisser is just a one-eyed brown noser…
chatterpoxx@reddit
I'd say that its elevation.
stephhie_ste@reddit
lmao stealing this
annswertwin@reddit
Me too
CakePhool@reddit
But some people goes all the way up the duodenum, that is what my dad used to say.
Artistic_Skills@reddit
🤣 disgusting but brilliant
ELMUNECODETACOMA@reddit
Kind of weird, I remember from a P.J. O'Rourke book (don't judge me, he was a good reporter before he became a pundit and his brain froze) - in the Philippines there's a very similar idiom, although it's more like "ass-kisser".
Hedgewizard1958@reddit
Ask them what " tutu sip-sip" means. Much worse than brown noser.
CodyDeBruncheon@reddit
By any chance is it todo sipsip?
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
Never heard it. What does it mean?
Eloquent-Trash@reddit
Same. Even google’d not giving hints.
Hedgewizard1958@reddit
I'm told that it's something worse than ass-kisser, kinda like "shit eating lapdog."
Please_Go_Away43@reddit
"Bradley the brown-nosed reindeer couldn't stop."
AceVasodilation@reddit
Another poo related one would be “shoot the shit”. Not sure how foreigners would interpret that.
rolyoh@reddit
The German version is better, IMO. They say "Arschkriecher" which means ass-crawler.
Future-Ear6980@reddit
Afrikaans has a direct translation "gatkruiper"
CatfishDog859@reddit
That's super interesting. "Butt-spelunker" was a homophobic slur in the US when i was in middle school, but i (as a child) couldn't help but chuckle internally about the imagery of someone suiting up with a caving helmet and headlamp and just really getting up in there headfirst... Makes way more sense as a synonym for "brown noser" than a bigoted reference to sex acts.
Much-Jackfruit2599@reddit
Arschkriecher in German. Literally „arsecreeper” or “arsecrawler”.
Mental_Newspaper3812@reddit
Yes, and yet when we use the them we don’t generally think about the thing that made the person’s nose brown, like it’s just accepted as a term.
Turdposter777@reddit
As a Filipino, I didn’t get “break a leg” when I first heard it. Why would that be lucky? A broken leg is far from lucky. I hate it.
brooklynagain@reddit
Personal theory is that when you break a leg you are put into a cast. When you get into the theater company you are put into the cast.
I always thought this was related but have no idea if it’s true.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
It was also used in horse racing where there's no second meaning to cast.
JayMonster65@reddit
Someone made that version up because they didn't want to admit to a superstition.
otterparade@reddit
That is why. Theater people are very superstitious and saying, “good luck!” was followed by enough bad things happening/things going wrong that it became back luck to tell someone good luck. Breaking a leg is bad but since we’re hoping for the opposite, the seemingly ill will is meant to bring positivity. If that makes sense. It’s deliberately the opposite due to superstition
isupposeyes@reddit
I had never considered the origin of that phrase until now lol
TheSlideBoy666@reddit
My personal silly saying when management is being atrocious is, “keep your head down and your nose brown.” lol.
TruckADuck42@reddit
I think i would just explain what kissing ass means and let them figure it out from there lol
SenorVajay@reddit
That’s hilarious.
Proud-Delivery-621@reddit
Biscuits and gravy probably sounds really gross to Brits.
Karen125@reddit
I'm from California, and it sounds gross to me.
AtlasThe1st@reddit
Its not brown gravy, like the kind you put on potatoes. Its breakfast gravy with sausage and whatnot in it. Its very good
DrBlankslate@reddit
I can’t eat it. It looks disgusting to me. I also have never had a biscuit that tasted like anything other than a hockey puck.
AtlasThe1st@reddit
That sucks. What kind of biscuits are you making?
DrBlankslate@reddit
I’ve never made them. I’ve had them made for me and they are uniformly disgusting.
AtlasThe1st@reddit
Oh, youre not actually here to talk. Youre just here to call them disgusting. I see, my mistake for thinking you were civil
Karen125@reddit
Oh, I know what it is. I make it for my husband but I don't like it. I like jelly on my biscuits.
KathyA11@reddit
I like butter (and lots of it) on mine.
ChoiceD@reddit
I've seen people put gravy and jelly on biscuits.
JohnnyCoolbreeze@reddit
Gee, and I wonder where the idea of “coastal elites” comes from…
KathyA11@reddit
Georgia is a coastal state.
EBDBspellsBed@reddit
Hush now. I’m from CA and I love biscuits & gravy.
meimlikeaghost@reddit
Hush now?! Oh now you’ve done it you elitist
Karen125@reddit
So does my husband.
Terradactyl87@reddit
Same, I don't really recall it being that common when I was growing up in San Diego. I never liked it though.
Puddin370@reddit
I'm from the south and I find it gross. I also don't like "shit on a shingle" which is the same gravy on toast instead of biscuits.
KathyA11@reddit
No - shit on a shingle is creamed chipped beef on toast. Very common breakfast in the US Army in WWII. My father hated it.
KathyA11@reddit
I was just in the Ask a Brit subreddit earlier, and this was a topic of conversation.
Frodo34x@reddit
And you know the best part about it? A load of carbs coated in a bechamel type sauce is such a British dish, and anyone who gets over the name or the "isn't that just a scone in white sauce?" psychological side of it invariably ends up loving it.
big_data_mike@reddit
There’s a great YouTube video of British teenagers trying it. Before they try it they laugh and say things like, “That’s not a biscuit!” And “It looks like a scone!” Then most of them really liked it.
Awalawal@reddit
What expression is “biscuits and gravy” in?
Sea_Macaron_7962@reddit
I don’t know about the biscuit part but i’ve heard “it’s all gravy” used multiple times.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
I was having breakfast with an English friend who looked at my biscuits and gravy observing in a way only the English can: "How nice, they chew it for you first."
bruisevwillis@reddit
My favorite is when they say, "It looks like cat sick."
LonelyWord7673@reddit
Yum
SgtHulkasBigToeJam@reddit
Three strikes and you’re out? Swing and a miss? I’d assume baseball references would translate well in a lot of the world.
nobikflop@reddit
Hit it out of the park, grand slam, batter up, struck out, threw him a curveball, batting a thousand, you name it. American English and baseball are one and the same
battery19791@reddit
Swing and a miss definitely would for the Cricket loving world.
Far_Silver@reddit
I think "break a leg" is pretty common in English-speaking world.
Calling a signature a John Hancock.
sandgrubber@reddit
I think 'break a leg' came from the German. I first encountered it in Austria in the 2980s.
Own_Reaction9442@reddit
Calling someone a "Benedict Arnold" is also a very American thing.
Awkward-Feature9333@reddit
I think it comes from actor's superstition. Wishing good luck brings bad luck, so they wish each other bad luck to get good luck.
It's btw similar/worse in German "Hals- und Beinbruch" (broken neck and leg, as in "May you suffer those"), even among sailors "Mast- und Schotbruch" (broken mast and sheet line)
-Major-Arcana-@reddit
It's this, wishing good luck in the theatre is considered bad luck, as it will jinx the performance.
So instead you wish them the worst thing that can happen to a stage actor, breaking a leg, so that you jinx that instead.
botulizard@reddit
"Good luck in your production of MacBeth!"
TychaBrahe@reddit
I just realized that they could have made the screens on which they project fake backgrounds any color at all, but they made them green because to this day for the most part actors are not costumed in green.
(For those who don't know, when outdoor theater was still quite common, actors didn't want to wear green costumes, because they would tend to blend into the natural background. It became considered unlucky to wear a green costume on stage.)
Far_Silver@reddit
They used to be blue. It caused problems because a lot of people wear blue.
Common-Parsnip-9682@reddit
Love the Blackadder take on this
cra3ig@reddit
Got that reference. Good catch.
Rail1971@reddit
🤣🤣
Leucotheasveils@reddit
“The Scottish Play” you mean.
Dreamweaver5823@reddit
I think that was the point.
FootballBat@reddit
You, out
TheStrigori@reddit
Break a leg has nothing to do with an injury. The leg the phrase references is old time theatre related, curtains I think. It effectively translates to "Get Paid" as stage actors used to only get paid for shows that played.
SnooFlake@reddit
“Break a leg” originates from the fact that when you break a leg, you end up in a cast.
TigerBaby-93@reddit
It came from the audition process, originally - breaking a leg will get you in a cast... :)
dirty_corks@reddit
It originated in wishing someone well before an audition. Because if you break a leg... you wind up in a cast.
Capital_Public_8145@reddit
You wish them to break a leg before an audition so that they'll end up in the cast
Mercuryshottoo@reddit
Oh it's actually because actors used to only get paid if they went onstage. Onstage was past the 'leg' - the long tall curtain on the edge of the theater opening.
So saying, break a leg, means, I hope you go on so you can get paid.
Gregthepigeon@reddit
I had a drama teacher that told us it was because way way way back when, stages were propped up on wooden legs because the traveling troupes would erect the stage in whatever town they happened upon and a good performance would cause the stage legs to shake
But that was in middle school and he probably didn’t know and just made that up
DrunkGuy9million@reddit
In retrospect, this seems incredibly obvious.
fritterkitter@reddit
It’s similar to how in some cultures you don’t say something positive about someone’s baby, because that will bring bad luck and something bad will happen to the baby. So rather than compliment the baby you say “what an ugly baby.”
davidw@reddit
In Italian it's 'in bocca al lupo" - in the mouth of the wolf. The other person says "crepi" meaning "may the wolf die"
HaplessReader1988@reddit
So when teenaged me said a baby looked like a wrinkled marshmallow, that was a proper response? Cool.
jacksonbeya@reddit
Also I’ve been told, possibly apocryphally, that it’s because if you break a leg you’re “in a cast”
Constant-Rip7304@reddit
I've heard that. A theater teacher I had in college told us it originally came about because performers weren't paid unless they actually appeared on stage so they had to "break a leg" (the curtains on the side of the stage) to get paid.
underground_cloud@reddit
They made that up.
PsychologicalFox8839@reddit
Definitely not true
HeyaShinyObject@reddit
I was told by someone in theater that it came from a wish that you would be called on to bow after the performance, and bending (breaking) a leg.
BroSchrednei@reddit
Actually the American-English "break a leg" originally comes from the German "Hals- und Beinbruch". And even more interesting, the German "Hals- und Beinbruch originally comes from the Hebrew "hazloche un broche", which was a saying that Medieval Jews would say to each other and meant "success and blessings".
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Fun fact, we often note or even make fun for him signing so large. In fact, he was the only person required to sign the document and he did. Then everyone else decided they wanted to sign also but had to sign smaller in order to fit!
radicalpastafarian@reddit
I did not know this! So I looked it up. If anyone else is interested in the why, it's because he was the president of the Continental Congress.
I would know more but I got side tracked by the lack of the use of the word nee on the page when talking about Hancock's family and so I looked THAT up to find out why we aren't using that anymore and the answer really pissed me off.
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Haha thanks for looking into the details, I was too lazy at that moment...
mindcontrol93@reddit
His grave marker is larger than most others in the same cemetery. It is also quite phallic.
peeehhh@reddit
The Penis Mightier
doctor-rumack@reddit
Indeed it is!
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Hah yes so I have seen it, a couple years ago, in January, I'm sure I could find pics. "The Embrace" had just appeared and there was some (actual) civil unrest/protests (but nothing significant.)
PlatinumPOS@reddit
Sounds purposeful.
mindcontrol93@reddit
I figured as much. If you are ever in Boston the Granary Burying Grounds are pretty cool.
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Is this the same one where Benjamin Franklin’s father is buried? With a huge monument? Just east or north east of the commons
floofienewfie@reddit
So this is the guy who’d have a giant pickup on five foot tires and lifted suspension with open exhaust.
botulizard@reddit
Across the street is the Beantown Pub, the only place where you can have a cold Sam Adams while you look at cold Sam Adams.
DrunkGuy9million@reddit
I just saw an image of it… man, I bet he wished he could be buried right outside Buckingham Palace.
TheMainEffort@reddit
Fun fact: his birth name was just Han. The rest came when George Dub saw him change.
AvailableAd6071@reddit
Big D energy with that one
Daddysheremyluv@reddit
Another fun fact he was the only one required because he had more cred because he has the same name as the financial services company
Unicoronary@reddit
I know Thats a joke but Youre not far off.
They needed Hancock. He was one of the bigger financiers of the war effort - because he was functionally THE New England equivalent of the India Company. Made a ton of money in shipping.
And became a financier after (hence why his name ended up referenced for the name of a financial services company).
Hancock was into signing because he losing money to the tariffs (which were, in part, to help prop up British shipping in the colonies)
riarws@reddit
John Hancock is the reason I get so confused when I read British spy novels. People are smuggling and committing treason against the British and that’s supposed to be… a bad thing?
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Um 🤔
Daddysheremyluv@reddit
It's a pretty good theory and we were not there soooo... lol
DrunkGuy9million@reddit
I just read that “he signed so big so the king could read it without his spectacles.” Almost certainly apocryphal, but I’m going with it!
peaveyftw@reddit
Supposedly he wrote so large so that George III could see it without his glasses.
TigerBaby-93@reddit
It comes from the theatre. Wishing someone "good luck" is considered bad luck in the theatre world. But...
If you break a leg, you'll end up in a cast. So, telling someone (especially at an audition) to "break a leg" is a way to wish them good luck without saying the "bad luck" words. :)
ACoinGuy@reddit
I ask for people’s John Hancock all the time. I didn’t know it was common.
Intrepid-Narwhal@reddit
It’s Herbie Hancock!
hwc@reddit
I know who Herbie Hancock is (even saw his band 30 years ago), but I don't get the joke.
MikeIn248@reddit
He's still playing and touring, btw. I'm going to see him next week!
Kichigai@reddit
It's from the movie Tommy Boy. Chris Farley plays the son of a man who owns an auto parts company, except he's basically a big, lazy, dummy, and on an American history test he confidently identifies the founding father with the largest signature on the declaration of Independence as Herbie Hancock. Since his father is a huge donor to the school, of course he passes.
Later in the movie someone asks him for his John Hancock on a piece of paperwork, and he corrects them, telling them it should be a Herbie Hancock they're asking for.
SplitOpenAndMelt420@reddit
That's why we love Herbie Hancock. He loves to lie.
mrhanky518@reddit
Jesus what happened to your face?
DennisJay@reddit
A lot of people go to college for seven years.
AndreaSaysYeah@reddit
Yeah they’re called doctors
Zachy_Chan013@reddit
I PASSED!!
CoffeePieAndHobbits@reddit
Brothers dont shake. Brothers gotta hug!
Turbulent_Shoe8907@reddit
…and did I detect a niner?
Traditional-Goose-60@reddit
No, it was cordless
worrymon@reddit
Another purveyor of the highest arts, I see.
Now I want chicken wings (but the kitchen is closed)
OrcaFins@reddit
Sorry about your car.
Motorgirl38@reddit
It's Herbie Hancock
Far_Silver@reddit
No, it's John Hancock because of his giant signature on the Declaration of Independence.
Motorgirl38@reddit
It’s a quote from Tommy Boy
Familiar-Ad-1965@reddit
Break a leg is from the theatre world. Actors wished each other good luck by saying it.
Critical_Patient_767@reddit
It’s herbie Hancock
Material_Positive@reddit
Pet peeve: Calling a signature a John Henry.
webbess1@reddit
OP is Russian.
JacobDCRoss@reddit
Right. I was told that that phrase originated in England.
Medical-Hurry-4093@reddit
A while back, people intentionally said 'John Henry' for 'John Hancock'. Now, nobody uses either.
rguiry913@reddit
so tangential but my (53F) mother was at her job where she’s a manager (chain coffee shop) and needed people to sign the check stub. goes up to the teenagers working and was like hey i need your john hancock. these like 15-18 year olds were actually so confused. she called me and was like you know what that means right? and i was like i’ve heard that maybe once in my life but i know who john hancock is so i could’ve figured it out
crazy shit
PsychologicalFox8839@reddit
It’s a theater phrase, not American.
Zachy_Chan013@reddit
John Hancock? Ppfft everyone knows it’s Herby Hancock
-Tommy Boy
goldenphantom@reddit
In Czechia we have "zlom vaz" (break your neck). But it can't be used with any other body part without losing its meaning.
Rock-Wall-999@reddit
Dumb as or useless as a box of rocks! Texas
sandgrubber@reddit
Honey wagon, for the septic tank cleaner tanker. I think it's an americanism. But there's no problem once the meaning is clear
Own_Reaction9442@reddit
A Finnish co-worker once expressed puzzlement about the expression "walking and chewing gum at the same time," on the very reasonable basis that it's actually not hard to do those two things.
He told me the equivalent Finnish expression translates as "running while peeing," although he may have been winding me up with that one.
yankinwaoz@reddit
I’ve had a few that caused complete confusion overseas.
I mentioned to a left handed man that he was a southpaw, he thought I was insulting him and took offense. He didn’t believe me when I tried to explain that only means someone is left handed.
At a cafe my omelette got cold. I casually asked the waitress if she minded taking my breakfast back to the kitchen and nuke it for me. She got very upset. She thought I was telling her that my meal sucked and to take out back and blow it up with an atomic bomb.
She didn’t believe me when I tried to explain that it just means to heat it in to microwave.
One time I was sitting in a public train. I noticed the transit guard standing by the door had his pants zipper down. So I told him “XYZ”.
That absolutely baffled him. He had no idea what I was trying to tell him. I explained that it means “eXamine Your Zipper”. He said he had never heard of that before. Seriously?
Honeycrispcombe@reddit
I grew up in a place where cokes are called soda-water. I accidentally ended up on an Abbott & Costello routine at a movie theater in Australia (I was recovering from a pretty bad illness, in my defense.)
Me: Can I have a ticket, a coke, and a water? Clerk, ringing me up: ticket, soda, water Me: yes, and a water, please. Clerk: ... right.... that's ticket, soda, water.... Me: yes, and a water, please. Clerk, very slowly: ticket [points to register]. Soda [points to coke]. Water [points to water].
Me: oh! Yes, that's it. Thanks.
I was too tired to even try to explain. I just figured she'd have a good dumb American story for her friends.
Darmok47@reddit
Good thing you didn't try to order a lemonade there. In Australia, they call Sprite or any other lemon-lime soda lemonade.
padall@reddit
I've never heard xyz, and I'm American.
Appropriate-Win3525@reddit
I've never heard of this. I live in Pittsburgh, which has its own weird dialect. We used to tell people that "Kennywood's open," if their zipper was down. This is one we grow up knowing is a regional saying because Kennywood is a local amusement park.
cscracker@reddit
People around me would say your fly is open.
Spellscroll@reddit
Grew up in eastern pa here, always heard "Your barn door's down" for zippers
ouch_that_hurts_@reddit
My mom would say, " You're barn doors are open and the cows are getting out."
osteologation@reddit
it was pretty common here in michigan growing up 80/90s
Leucotheasveils@reddit
I never heard XYZ to mean that either, and I’m northeast US. I’ve heard “your fly is down” or “your barn door is open”.
yankinwaoz@reddit
I'm from California. It's something that we say.
mittenknittin@reddit
I haven’t heard it since I was a kid, but in Michigan it was usually “XYZ, PDQ”
Candid-Math5098@reddit
How is southpaw potentially offensive?
pingpangpan@reddit
He was probably from Tasmania
yankinwaoz@reddit
I think just being from south of the equator was enought to trigger him.
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
XYZ has a really interesting history in American language:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/xyz
sluttypidge@reddit
"Going postal" to become extremely angry, often to the point of violent or destructive behavior, typically in a workplace setting.
The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed people in acts of mass murder. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by then-current or former employees in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage.
Honestly I'm shocked that it's happened specifically to USPS so many times. I thought it was a one time event. Like "drink the Kool Aid"
Darmok47@reddit
Newman: "Because the mail never stops! It just keeps coming and coming and coming. There's never a letup, it's relentless. Every day it piles up more and more and more, and you gotta get it out, but the more you get it out, the more it keeps coming in! And then the barcode reader breaks! And then, it's Publisher's Clearinghouse Day!"
bsteckler@reddit
That's interesting, I always thought Going Postal was a reference to the Unabomber
Sharp-Ad-5493@reddit
Sports stuff — bottom of the ninth, on the one yard line…
AskMrScience@reddit
There is a HUGE amount of American English idioms derived from baseball that just won't translate to countries that aren't Japan or the Dominican Republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_English-language_idioms_derived_from_baseball
Darmok47@reddit
I was watched a British sitcom where a couple referred to getting to second-base while dating, and it made me realize that whole baseball metaphor must be common in the UK from American pop culture.
ENovi@reddit
They’re so ubiquitous here that I have to consciously remind myself not to use them when speaking to my family in Wales. It goes both ways though. I had no idea what my cousin meant by using the rugby idiom “it had a knock on effect.” That phrase feels just as natural to him as “out of left field” feels to me.
Bright_Ices@reddit
Knock on effect has been a common phrase in throughout my American life.
VIDCAs17@reddit
I’ve heard that phrase my whole life, and I never would’ve even thought it was a rugby term.
TychaBrahe@reddit
I've been American for almost 60 years, and I've never heard that phrase.
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
Knock on effect makes perfect sense though without knowing rugby
Dazzling-Low8570@reddit
It is not at all obvious what it means.
Mr_MacGrubber@reddit
It’s a pretty common saying in the US and you don’t need to understand Rugby to understand the saying. Something like “out of left field” requires that you understand baseball to know the meaning. I’m sure more people use left field not truly knowing the meaning related to baseball than use knock-on not knowing rugby.
Dazzling-Low8570@reddit
Yeah, that's how idioms work. If I wasn't already familiar with it I'd have no idea what it meant, though.
exitparadise@reddit
When you hear it in context it does. Not much makes sense without context.
"Out of left field" won't always make sense even in context if you don't already know what it means.
PlasticCheetah2339@reddit
The rugby term "knock on" doesn't make any sense as the root of the phrase "knock on effect". A knock on in rugby is basically just fumbling the ball forward. There's no cause and effect - usually the referee stops play immediately after a knock on.
I think British English tends to use "knock" more often in idioms ("knocking off early", "just knocking about the house today") so "knock on effect" is probably just more common there. Not for rugby reasons though.
Hairy_Buffalo1191@reddit
I had to look up “out of left field” to see if it was really a baseball thing like I thought (it was) because I heard a British YouTube I watch use it
MrVeazey@reddit
That's a rugby term? I've been using it for years and I've never seen nor participated in a rugby game (match?).
mspolytheist@reddit
Same.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Compare to "domino effect" used frequently during the Cold War.
ilstrider1@reddit
Underestimating baseball a little. Korea, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela just off the top of my head would all get the references. But yes they wouldn't translate in most of the world.
KathyA11@reddit
Panama, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, The Dominican.
texasrigger@reddit
It's funny but for some reason I associate Cuba with baseball even more strongly than the US. That's despite living in probably the only small town in TX that cares more about high school baseball than it does high school football.
imSOhere@reddit
I have no idea if this is true, since I was taught this in school in Cuba, and they tend to make up shit to make us look good.
But, I learned that when Spaniards came to Cuba, the indigenous people had a local game that resembled baseball, and that’s why baseball is so ingrained in our culture. It’s probably some stretched truth, but baseball is the main sport in Cuba, and the most popular by far. And boxing, Cubans love their boxing.
OK_Stop_Already@reddit
haha i was just explaining "monday morning quarterback" on this sub the other day
rantgoesthegirl@reddit
Please explain again?
OK_Stop_Already@reddit
Basically, because there's major Football games that happen on Sunday night, there's people who criticize every action and pass judgement on things that happened in the game, saying they should have done this, done that. "If it were me on the field I wouldn't have thrown to that guy who got tackled unexpectedly". But that's only because they already know the results of those choices with the power of hindsight.
Thus, they're the Monday Morning Quarterback (quarterback is the star position in american football)
This can apply for anything, really, when someone makes a judgement and criticism based on hindsight. Especially if there's no way the person being criticized couldn't have known the results beforehand.
rantgoesthegirl@reddit
This is a good one! I hate those people lol and my stepson plays Canadian football so I'm sure it will come up
Medical-Hurry-4093@reddit
British TV shows frequently have characters talking about 'covering all the bases' in a discussion, or else they'll 'touch base' with a follow-up discussion. The phrase 'ballpark figure' is also used.
Ouisch@reddit
Blitz....red dog.....groin injury.
soulmatesmate@reddit
"General after the war" but for an American sport.
Akz1918@reddit
Or Cuba
Colonel_Sandman@reddit
Gotta take the Browns to the Super Bowl
TheStray7@reddit
The seventh-inning stretch
MissDisplaced@reddit
Yes: Touch base, home run, three strikes. And golf as well: Tee up, Hole in one.
You have to remind yourself not to use these in international settings or jobs.
KathyA11@reddit
Golf is an international sport.
iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit
That sounds like a bunch of inside baseball to me.
Adept_Carpet@reddit
Inside Baseball doesn't even exist anymore so it's on its way to archaic
iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit
Words and phrases don't stop existing until they're forgotten.
As long as someone uses it occasionally it still exists.
Illustrious-Pool-352@reddit
Sure, but a lot of idioms still exist despite most people not knowing their origin.
katarh@reddit
"They Dawgs Is Hell, Don't They" is one that violates every rule in English and yet is perfectly understandable to the UGA fan base.
Cool-Bunch6645@reddit
Batting 1.000. Try explaining that one 😂
beenoc@reddit
I mean, that's pretty easy. It's just a success rate, it's no different from saying you're performing at 100%. "In baseball, you swing at the ball with the bat and the percentage of times you hit it is your batting percentage (measured in tenths of a percent.) Batting a thousand is when you hit the ball every single time (one thousand out of one thousand tenths-of-a-percent), which means you're performing perfectly."
Other ones like "out of left field" or "grand slam" or even ones involving the bases are a lot trickier to describe to someone with no baseball knowledge.
Wonderful_Hamster@reddit
Except "batting 1.000" means the exact opposite of that...
tamsyndrome@reddit
Especially because you’d say ‘batting a thousand’ but it’s written as a decimal.
DasArtmab@reddit
That’s the difference of me, explaining how I played, verses how I actually played
Martothir@reddit
I discovered this last year when I had a coworker/staff member from Colombia who could speak English, but with limited proficiency. I never realized how many sports colloquialisms I used until I worked with her and I had to stop myself every conversation at least once.
She was wonderful, gracious, and actually encouraged me to use them because she wanted to learn English better, but man, I didn't realize how much of our language is intertwined with our culture. It was an eye opening experience.
Honeycrispcombe@reddit
I lived in New Zealand for two years and never said "first floor" not once. I managed to figure out roundabouts driving on the left side of the road, but the ground/first floor just broke my brain.
AssistanceDry7123@reddit
As an American who isn't into sports, most of these are lost on me as well.
FlappyClap@reddit
Bottom of the 8th, Raleigh hit a home run to tie the game. Suárez blew the top off the park with a grand slam
julieredl@reddit
HELL YEAH !!! 🔱
TheNavigatrix@reddit
But Who’s on First?
althoroc2@reddit
Not terribly relevant here lol
But I loved Rizzs' delivery on the radio call of Geno's slam... "at the warning track..." and then he paused for a second and you just knew he was loading up Dave's grand salami call before you yelled it with him
InvertedJennyanydots@reddit
Outkicked his coverage seems like such a niche idiom now that you mention sports.
Get_Breakfast_Done@reddit
You get a lot of this in England with cricket, too. “On a sticky wicket”, or “he’s had a good innings”, or “not cricket” … although I believe “being stumped” may originate from cricket as well and is used in both countries.
Icy-Whale-2253@reddit
If someone has lived here long enough, they’ll say inevitably say hit it out of the park.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Hit it out of the park/home run \~= hit for six (cricket)
cephalophile32@reddit
I’ve been seeing “Monday morning quarterback” and “armchair quarterback” a lot lately.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Armchair QB \~= Armchair general
__The_Kraken__@reddit
It’s time for a Hail Mary!
Federal-Membership-1@reddit
Swing and a miss!
Independent-Summer12@reddit
I only realized this when I started working with a team that are predominantly in Europe. We have also many sports sayings. Hit it out of the park; touch base; on par; tee it up, slam dunk; full count press; hook, line, and sinker; bait and switch; step up to the plate; next man up; throw a curve ball; out of left field; on the ropes; call an audible; move the goal post…so many.
non_clever_username@reddit
“Out of left field”
Which while I know way it means (basically something unexpected came up), I have no idea how that came to be because it’s not really intuitive at all. Even non-US folks ergo know baseball might not get that one.
jda404@reddit
Monday morning quarterback was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw this thread.
Asleep_Hawk7184@reddit
My college Russian professor (American teaching Russian) told us stories of how difficult it was to live-translate for a particular US president who constantly used baseball idioms that meant nothing in Russian lol.
docmoonlight@reddit
Let’s punt this one to next week…
Engine_Sweet@reddit
Can't do that. We're running out of clock. We need to score on every drive if we're going to push this over the goal line.
Angsty_Potatos@reddit
"Got to third base with Christine!"
The_Fugue@reddit
This gets used in Australia. T
FacebookNewsNetwork@reddit
Get your fingers out of Christine. Don’t smell them either.
Sharp-Ad-5493@reddit
That would really confuse them all!
Defiant-Chemist423@reddit
It's 4th and 10
thereBheck2pay@reddit
Almost all idioms are weird and have a backstory that is obscure and often, even when explained is still weird. "Break a leg" means Good Luck in the theatre, where superstition prevents "good luck" from being mentioned. So they wish the worst thing possible on you so you will be lucky.
"Drink the Kool-Aid" -google Jim Jones (unless you are delicate, it's not pretty) "Bob's your uncle" --google Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (known as "Bob") Etc.
TywinDeVillena@reddit
In Spain, in the theatre world you don't wish anyone good luck, you wish them "lot of shit".
The alleged explanation is kinda fun: back in the days of horse-drawn carriages, if a play was successful you would see a lot of shit adjacent to the theatre.
spintowinasin@reddit
Yo tengo mucha mierda
PolyesterBellBottoms@reddit
In the USA, to wish luck to a dancer one would say “merde.” That’s French for “shit” for those who may not know.
Kind-Improvement-284@reddit
In opera, we say “toi toi toi,” which mimicks the sound of spitting over someone’s shoulder, or “in boca al lupo,” which means “into the mouth of the wolf.”
PolyesterBellBottoms@reddit
I’ve never understood toi toi toi! I knew it was for good luck, but what does the shoulder spitting signify?
Efficient_Wheel_6333@reddit
The last one is an Italian superstition and has an actual reply to it too!! Crepi il lupo” (may the wolf die)
wingaling5810@reddit
And in Texas: "merde, y'all!"
IamtheCarl@reddit
I thought it meant death?
ReferenceCreative510@reddit
Pretty sure that's "la mort"?
Unicoronary@reddit
It is.
IamtheCarl@reddit
TIL!
Aggressive_FIamingo@reddit
In the ballet world you say "merde" to someone right before they go on stage, which is French for "shit". No idea why, but its always been funny to me.
WhydIJoinRedditAgain@reddit
Unfun fact: It was Flavor Aid, not Kool-Aid.
becbec89@reddit
I was about to say the same thing. That idiom is giving Kool-aid a bad name.
ophmaster_reed@reddit
Another unfun fact is that although a few drank it willingly, most were forced to at gunpoint. Parents had to force their kids to drink the poison, thinking that its an easier death than being shot.
People call Jonestown a mass suicide....it wasn't. It was a massacre.
Acceptable_Tea3608@reddit
It's not that hard to get kids to drink kool-aid. The difference was it was hard on parents to give it as it was the encampment's 'final solution'. Most parents don't want to kill off their children.
becbec89@reddit
One of the cult-themed podcasts I used to listen to interviewed a survivor of the Jonestown Massacre. I think she was a teen, or maybe barely an adult when it happened. It was horrifying to hear all the details
B1GD1CKRANDYBENNETT@reddit
I personally know Jim Jr, like... well. Really well. Doesn't talk about it like that. He's done some limited stuff but yeah, rough shit.
des1gnbot@reddit
Also here for the you’re wrong about of flavor aid
DiscontentDonut@reddit
True story. Jim Jones didn't spend money on his followers even to their dying day. He couldn't be bothered to purchase name brand.
That said, I believe it's just a saying that falls victim to the thing Americans tend to do where we call things by a well known brand name of that thing rather than the thing itself. Like calling a copier a Xerox machine, calling bandages Band-Aids, calling plastic containers Tupperware, etc. Kool-Aid is much easier to remember and more widespread acknowledgeable than Flavor Aid.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Brits do it too. A vacuum cleaner is a Hoover. A public address system is a Tannoy.
TychaBrahe@reddit
In the Philippines, toothpaste is called "Colgate" because for years that was the only brand available.
sgtm7@reddit
Americans are not the only ones who call a product by a well known brand, even if the product is not that brand. It can be confusing at times, if the well known brand in the country you are in, is different from the well known brand in the country you are from.
drgonzo767@reddit
The cheap bastard couldn't even spring for the good stuff.
gtrocks555@reddit
Most people who died from drinking it were forced to as well. Plenty of others were just shot. It was only a smaller group who willingly “drank the kool-aid”.
underground_cloud@reddit
Funny thing about Jim Jones, he was a cheap bastard.
Lampietheclown@reddit
Legend says that the origin of break a leg, comes from vaudeville. You did not get paid if you did not make it onto the stage. The (usually black) drape on the sides of the stage are called legs. If you broke the leg you walked, or ran or danced, past the leg onto the stage, which meant you got paid.
KingWilliamIX@reddit
"Break a leg" actually means something else. In theaters, a leg is a drape on the side of the procenium that forms the "wings" that actors stand in when they wait to go onstage. By wishing that someone "breaks" the leg or "breaks curtain" it's a way of wishing that they perform so well that the audience asks for a "curtain call" or a special bow from the performer at the end of the performance.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Alas the first reference seems to be much more modern and originated in horse racing.
thereBheck2pay@reddit
The side curtains storyline is mentioned at least a couple times here. Horse races / broken leg makes sense too.
dangereaux@reddit
This isn't true at all LMFAO. Lifelong theatre kid and "Break a leg" means "give the performance all you've got". For instance, if the scene requires you to play breaking your leg- break it for real. That's the vibe.
underground_cloud@reddit
That isn't true at all either.
BarAgent@reddit
I don’t believe that for a hot second.
dangereaux@reddit
And you shouldn't because it's not even close to true lol
Bright_Ices@reddit
Thank you for explaining Bob. As a kid I was always annoyed because I have no uncle called Bob. But Uncle Sam never bothered me, despite having no uncle called Sam.
thereBheck2pay@reddit
Jolly good!
CaliTexJ@reddit
I head “break a leg” came from a tradition where at a certain theater, the audience would stomp instead of clapping. So “break a leg” means to perform so well that the audience stomps so hard that someone breaks their leg.
thereBheck2pay@reddit
I’m learning many new “origins “ of this saying!
bluepanic21@reddit
Where does it say, “ bob’s your uncle “
Medical-Hurry-4093@reddit
Another (pre-automobile) 'theater thing' used to be hoping there was a lot of horse shit in front of the theater...because that would mean a large crowd showed up, in horse-drawn carriages.
CoffeeByIV@reddit
While you are right about wishing luck in the theatre being against superstition… you are missing most of the explanation for “break a leg”
Legs is the side drapes on a stage that run parallel to the front of the stage. They are what block the audience view of the wings (side offstage area)
In the days of vaudeville many acts would be at the theatre hoping to perform, but an act only got paid if they actually got called onto the stage.
The manager of theatre would get to determined who went on stage and when they needed to leave (at least in part based on audience reaction).
If you get called onto stage you break the leg sight line, are in view of the audience, and get paid.
So telling someone to “break a leg” is wishing them luck in both performing and finances.
gtrocks555@reddit
They didn’t even use kool-aid either. It was flavor aid but kool-aid is just more memorable I guess.
Fantastic-Mix-2223@reddit
I thought "break a leg" meant you're in a cast, so you got the part? I knew they said it sure to"good luck" being bad luck. Thanks for the Bob's your uncle back story, I've always wondered about that!
MdmeLibrarian@reddit
No, theatre folk are a very suspicious lot, such to the point that you cannot even say the name of a specific Shakespearean play (Google "the Scottish play") in a theater outside of saying the titular character's actual name as required as part of your rehearsal/performance lines. Wishing someone good luck would be like cursing someone, so they flip it.
ngshafer@reddit
“I don’t have a dog in this fight.” I feel the similar “I don’t have a horse in this race” might translate better.
JohnnyCoolbreeze@reddit
Piggybacking on this with “That dog won’t hunt.”
ngshafer@reddit
That was honestly the first one I thought of, but I feel like hunting dogs are common enough across human cultures that the translation would be pretty easy, even if the idiom isn’t known.
TychaBrahe@reddit
The thing is though, I feel like in many parts of the world hunting is for sport, for the wealthy, not something your average rural Joe does to supplement their diet.
ngshafer@reddit
Not in America, I would think. Hunting for food is a longstanding tradition here, going back to before this continent was reached by Europeans, and continuing even today.
Simply_Sloppy0013@reddit
That dog won't hunt, monsignor.
juliabk@reddit
Or, all hat and no cattle.
KathyA11@reddit
All show and no go.
Bright_Ices@reddit
At least hunting can have some purpose besides cruel entertainment. I’m not a hunter, but decent hunter respects animals.
finethanksandyou@reddit
Ha piggybacking :)
BioBachata@reddit
"Piggy backing on this" is even pretty weird
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
Piggyback itself sends like it would fit the question
FelineRoots21@reddit
I wonder how the similar 'not my circus not my monkeys' would translate lol
TychaBrahe@reddit
My understanding is that it's only recently become part of the English language, and was formerly a Polish saying.
Easy_Requirement_874@reddit
Dont know if this is a saying there, but in Aus, we say, "Gotta go see a man about a dog" which can mean either, Im leaving now, I am on a mission that is none of your business, or, is to hard to explain & not that interesting anyway, or, Im going for a piss, or in my grandfathers case, as a dog breeder, he actually was going to see a man about a dog.. 😂
Awalawal@reddit
In the US it’s “gotta see a man about a horse,” but I almost always hear it only in the context of having to go to the bathroom (which is, itself, another USism since a lot of people around the world don’t understand why you would need to take a bath).
Subvet98@reddit
Americanism not USism.
Bright_Ices@reddit
It’s funny to me that US is seen as somehow better/more specific, as though no other countries (Mexico for example… full name: Estados Unidos Mexicanos) have states that are united.
Old_Palpitation_6535@reddit
That would be the EU, of course.
Bright_Ices@reddit
Of course. Because there’s no other EU to confuse it with.
breakingpoint214@reddit
At a meeting everyone was asking where is X? Where is X? I said leave him alone, he probably went to see a man about a horse. No one had ever heard that expression!
rantgoesthegirl@reddit
My father in law (Canadian) says it about going to buy weed. Hold over from before it was legal
304libco@reddit
I’ve never heard got to see a man about a horse. I’ve only ever heard going to see a man about a dog.
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
In Ohio and Kentucky, I've always heard about seeing a man about a dog. I've only seen the horse version in books.
osteologation@reddit
michigan here and ive never heard the dog one inn45 years even the horse version is pretty rare.
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
I heard it more often in Kentucky. It's been rare for me in Ohio.
chromebaloney@reddit
I use 'horse' it all those situations but also if I'm going to do nothing in particular.
Charlesinrichmond@reddit
in US you are going to take a piss
QuercusSambucus@reddit
Probably depends on which countries have a history of dog fighting. England had a long history of it, but other countries may not.
Adept_Carpet@reddit
One of the weirdest and grosses historical rabbit holes I ever went down was "bearbaiting"
kaatie80@reddit
It's.... it's not about leaving out bait for a bear...?
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Well NOW it does... Unfortunately the original was sending dogs against an already captive bear to make it fight. In both cases the bear is likely to wind up deaf. 😞
underground_cloud@reddit
Ohhh that certainly isn't the type of bearbaiting I am familiar with. :)
Adept_Carpet@reddit
Wait what could that mean that isn't weird?
TychaBrahe@reddit
OK, first you need a dead antelope. Then you need a camera with an incredibly powerful telephone lens. Finally, you need a contract with National Geographic.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
I haven't a clue either
Please_Daddy_@reddit
What does it mean when he does it???!
Adept_Carpet@reddit
What's so nuts is that this wasn't some backwoods thing. There were stadiums in London for it.
GazelleOpposite1436@reddit
Why would they deafen a bear?
cherry_monkey@reddit
So the bear can't hear them chant "Bears still suck" even though we definitely beat them last time.
Drew707@reddit
I think, "I don't have a Beyblade in the Beystadium," is pretty universal.
kaatie80@reddit
And on the more regional side: I don't have a cowboy in this rodeo
Lothar_Ecklord@reddit
I work with a very diverse mix of people, so I usually go with “I don’t have a dog or pony in this rodeo”
NonBinaryKenku@reddit
“Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
InevitableRhubarb232@reddit
Not my monkey, not my circus
Prudent_Advantage_18@reddit
I have read pretty widely and I've spent all my 48 years in the western US and I've NEVER heard this. The only thing I can think of is that it's something to do with Beyonce lol.
FrozenWafer@reddit
They're referencing the kid's Japanese anime Beyblade where kids battle (intense battles) with the little spinning tops - haha! The beyblades are toys sold in stores, I think they still are.
It has been on the air in different versions since the early 2000s, I think.
I like your Beyonce take!
Bright_Ices@reddit
Thank you! That was all I could think of and I can’t see how that’s pretty much universal. People said it for a year or so after the movie came out, and I haven’t heard it since.
Gilthoniel_Elbereth@reddit
They were 100% joking for comedic effect
dangereaux@reddit
Oh no, I'm going to start saying this! What have you done? 😭
TheStray7@reddit
"Not my circus, not my monkeys."
SavannahInChicago@reddit
I don't think America is the only country in the world to have dog fighting, which I am pretty sure is older than America.
AvailableAd6071@reddit
Not my monkeys, not my circus
EitherBarry@reddit
"A hit dog'll holler"
rwv2055@reddit
Your the one screwing this goat, I'm just holding the horns.
RupeThereItIs@reddit
Not my circus not my monkeys
althoroc2@reddit
Countries with a history of making roosters battle to the death get mighty confused by their own version of this saying.
Bright_Ices@reddit
We also still use “cockfight” as an expression sometimes.
JumpingJacks1234@reddit
I’ve heard the same saying for dogs, chickens, roosters, and cats. The cat one is especially funny because nobody has time to take bets on on a cat fight. Cat fights occur at a time of the cat’s own choosing or not at all.
stabbingrabbit@reddit
Not my pig, not my farm.
Secret-Sir2633@reddit
"No tengo un toro en esta corrida" ?
Express-Stop7830@reddit
In all honesty, when I visited cousins in Appalachia, I heard this for the first time. I had to first figure out the actual words said because of the accent. And then deduce the meaning. Then I laughed...then they laughed at me because of my delayed reaction.
MissNunyaBusiness@reddit
Where I live, people use the expression "hot minute" quite often, though it's mainly the millenial/gen z generations and younger.
Like: "It's been a hot minute since I've had Korean bbq" --> it's been a very, very long time since I've had that kind of food.
MsDJMA@reddit
"Speak of the Devil" (English) is commonly "speaking of the Pope" in Spanish.
achaedia@reddit
In Korean it’s 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다 which means even the tiger will come if you talk about him.
dgistkwosoo@reddit
There's a terrific saying, originally from T'ang I think, but used a lot in Korean provinces: 山高皇帝远
The mountains are high and the emperor is far. There should be an idiom like that in English, but I can't think of it.
TheStray7@reddit
When the cat's away, the mice will play (sorta has the same connotations, though the implication is more temporary)
Illustrious-Pool-352@reddit
What is the meaning of it? That you can do what you want because you probably won't get in trouble?
dgistkwosoo@reddit
Pretty close, but it has nuance of "we take care of our own affairs, and don't give a damn about a distant government".
Anesthesia222@reddit
Interesting. I’ve only heard “Hablando del Rey de Roma” (speaking of the king of Rome), but maybe that’s the Latin American version.
TruckADuck42@reddit
Makes me wonder if there was something lost in translation in the 16th century that just stuck around. Explaining the Pope to people who didn't know who he was, "king in rome" would've been close enough.
MsDJMA@reddit
Same, I believe. “Hablando del Papa…”
Phineas67@reddit
“Calling an audible.” It means making a last-minute change of plan, usually while something is already underway.
Origin: The phrase comes from American football. The quarterback can “call an audible” by shouting a new play at the line of scrimmage after seeing how the defense is positioned. “Audible” here literally means “spoken out loud” rather than communicated by hand signal.
Extended use: Outside football it now means improvising or pivoting quickly, e.g., changing meeting plans or business strategy on short notice.
Fodraz@reddit
What about all the corporate-speak like "touch base", "circle back", "leverage" (as a verb), etc ?
coolkirk1701@reddit
I just threw up in my mouth.
chicagok8@reddit
Clearly you need to change your paradigm.
madogvelkor@reddit
Let's put a pin in it.
TheStray7@reddit
Did you get the memo about the new cover letters for the TPS reports?
dear_deer_dear@reddit
That's jargon which is different. Funnily enough a lot of it comes from military terms. Here's a PBS short clip on it https://youtu.be/HSbYUEaAwLI?si=EhMBqHWuCguU1gSL
Busters_Missing_Hand@reddit
God I fucking hate leverage as a verb. The word “use” is right there. Why can’t we leverage it?
CuriousOptimistic@reddit
Related, solution as a verb. Solve already exists. It's literally the same root word.
Fodraz@reddit
OMG I have not heard this yet. I would rage.
CuriousOptimistic@reddit
Apparently it's reasonably common in IT. "We need to solution this." "The solutioning of that will be in the next phase."
My husband says this all the time on work calls and it makes me insane. The only reason he's still breathing is because he's not a native speaker and I know he's just picked this up from his work team but whoever came up with this deserves to be in one of the circles of hell.
Unicoronary@reddit
Tbf that one does actually mean something different - the management types just don’t use it the right way.
Leverage = take advantage of.
fromwayuphigh@reddit
Most of that's so painfully cliché and washed out, even the people (perhaps especially the people) who are saying it have no idea what any if it means. It's the linguistic equivalent of junk food.
Bright_Ices@reddit
Today I read something corporate that used, as a verb, decisioning. Ugh! One of my previous most hated ones was dialoguing.
dcgrey@reddit
I disagree. In a business setting these are perfectly cromulent words.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
It's all bafflegab to me.
MistraloysiusMithrax@reddit
None of these are bad, meaningless phrases on their own.
Their real problem is the subject material they’re used in discussing is either vapid, pointless, or often solely about a business’ profit, and they trigger these unpleasant memories of the things we endure to make a living.
yeetskeetleet@reddit
I was looking into purchasing a car last month and I communicated with the sales rep mostly through text. Occasionally, they’d ask to “connect,” meaning call, apparently. Every time they’d ask to call, they’d specifically say connect. It got really annoying
BlaggartDiggletyDonk@reddit
"Have a productive day."
continuousBaBa@reddit
Hey look I figured I'd reach out
haileyskydiamonds@reddit
We all got our fill of “circle back” because a former press secretary used it all the time, lol.
donquixote2u@reddit
"Fanny pack"
Milos_shka@reddit (OP)
Yes this was so confusing. I learned most of my english in the UK so hearing “fanny” it the US was shocking
gmrzw4@reddit
My grama used it to mean butt. I never told her what it means in other parts of the world, since she didn't really say it around anyone other than family.
I worked with a Scottish guy (in the midwest) who wouldn't let us call them fanny packs. Our first aid kits were in "bum bags". Dude swore like a sailor, f-bombs all over the place, but couldn't stand that one word.
Ok-Apricot6292@reddit
Ha ha. Made me remember the look on the face of my wife's aunt visiting from Scotland when I said I was going to bring my fanny pack to the amusement park.
CompanyOther2608@reddit
Yeah it’s like you guys throwing around the c word like it’s nothing, and we’re over here wide-eyed about the rudeness. 😂
madogvelkor@reddit
Yeah, calling someone that is pretty offensive. Especially a woman.
Medical-Hurry-4093@reddit
The British use the 'c word' for everyhing except its original definition.
boarhowl@reddit
Meanwhile in Australia...
CompanyOther2608@reddit
Haha they don’t hold back
highlandre@reddit
That’s why you say “see you next Tuesday.” Most people haven’t a clue.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
In the days when sexism wasn't called out, you'd hear of men giving a woman a "pat on the fanny." See also: theme song from television show The Nanny where she ends up " ... out on her fanny!" (kicked to the curb).
Remarkable-Rush-9085@reddit
It’s kind of extra funny that we use it as the babiest baby small children can use it without getting in trouble word for ass. It’s what grandmas and old church ladies would use to be ladylike.
Express-Stop7830@reddit
"Rooting"
ENovi@reddit
During baseball batting practice it’s perfectly normal to have a few guys in the outfield to shag some balls.
KathyA11@reddit
Including pitchers - which is how Mariano Rivera hurt his knee.
ELMUNECODETACOMA@reddit
The Seattle Mariners' local network used to be called "Root Sports". One of the broadcast team is former Mariner Ryan Rowland-Smith, who is Australian. He was occasionally forced to say the name of the network on air, and to the best of my knowledge he always managed to contain the inevitable snicker.
Imightbeafanofthis@reddit
Try this term in England and check out the looks you get. lol
madogvelkor@reddit
Also randy, we had a friend who moved to the UK and didn't know why she'd get looks when yelling for her son Randy.
Imightbeafanofthis@reddit
hahahaha
chicagok8@reddit
Yes! I’m a female from the US and years ago was the only woman in a course in Canada (company HQ) with a bunch of guys from Europe. We were all heading out for a bike ride and I said hang on, I need to grab my fanny pack. Their faces were like 😳 and one of them explained to me that for them it was like saying c*nt. Yikes!
hoggie_and_doonuts@reddit
It’s an object in the US but an action in the UK!
whiskeynkettlebells@reddit
My great-grandmother's actual name was Fanny. No one blinked an eye.
BullPropaganda@reddit
"bum bag"
smcl2k@reddit
I was so confused by that Simpsons scene when I saw it as a kid in the UK 😂
cyndicated90@reddit
what Simpsons scene?
silojames@reddit
Does a snake drag its dick in the dirt
Express-Stop7830@reddit
Most Southernisms don't translate well. And so I try to avoid them when speaking to those who are non native speakers. Or out west.
I got called out once +while they were laughing) for "don't just sit there like a bump on a log."
_meshy@reddit
I feel like most people understand 'it's hotter than two rats fucking in a wool sock' though.
Express-Stop7830@reddit
And sweating like a sinner in church. (Ok, the revision to summer is mine because I'm not gonna shame sex workers just trying to get by.)
And the opposite to yours: colder than a witch's teet.
Alternative-Law4626@reddit
Colder than a witches tit in a brass bra.
Or, colder than a well digger’s ass.
TheStray7@reddit
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Icy-Whale-2253@reddit
I’m not Southern but I do love to say if it was a snake it would’ve bit me.
KathyA11@reddit
One of my mother's sayings was "I'd hate to have his nerve in a tooth."
KathyA11@reddit
Jersey version - "If it had teeth, it would have bitten you."
SushiGirlRC@reddit
If you had a run of bad luck, my grandma would say you were gonna start thinking you were snake-bit.
Express-Stop7830@reddit
Said that to my dad just the other day 🤣
Practical-Plenty907@reddit
My family says this and we are Californians. Is this a southern saying? Meaning the bump on a log.
KathyA11@reddit
We said it in New Jersey.
wifeage18@reddit
My Depression-era parents from Los Angeles said that a lot!
Appropriate_Tie534@reddit
I'm from New York and also would use this.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
My friend did a seminar in the UK and he was very southern so he had a hard time being understood. He said they really laughed when he told them he was fixin to get something to eat.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Is anyone ever fixing' to fix something' to eat?
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
Ayup
SushiGirlRC@reddit
Fixin ta hafta do this.
jalapeno442@reddit
lol have they heard their own phrases like ever? Some very weird ones in their vocabulary
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
I think it’s charming. These people are engineers and biologists with advanced degrees and they still let their southern slip out once in a while, and it’s adorable. I love them for it.
My best friend, who had a phd in English and wrote cowboy poetry (may he rest in peace) once told me that a joke slid over people’s heads like hot butter on a pigs rear.
PuppySnuggleTime@reddit
No, it’s not just southern.
Mountain_Remote_464@reddit
Mom is from New York and she says this
pyramidalembargo@reddit
We in TN said "don't sit there like a knot on a log."
I guess that variation is becoming extinct.
lainiezensane@reddit
We do as well here in Alabama.
Amardella@reddit
WV here to confirm "knot on log" is still alive and kicking.
Caverjen@reddit
I think it's more of an old-fashioned saying
juleeff@reddit
My parents are from New England and say this
All-Stupid_Questions@reddit
My parents always said this and they're from the Midwest
Old_Palpitation_6535@reddit
I once told someone in a meeting in NYC that they needed to shit or get off the pot. It didn’t go over well.
sewergratefern@reddit
Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise
Alternative-Law4626@reddit
I learned recently that the Creek in this saying is the tribe not the water feature.
sewergratefern@reddit
I think that's one of those redditisms that sound like a fun fact, but really aren't. Wikipedia thinks it is water creeks, anyway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_creek_don%27t_rise
74NG3N7@reddit
Wikipedia is not a good source. Anyone can edit it.
Grace_Alcock@reddit
I use that one.
Temporary_Nail_6468@reddit
I’m from the Texas hill country and this was literal there. We occasionally had early release from school if it was going to rain a lot so that the country kids could get home over the low water crossings before the flash floods.
riarws@reddit
The first part of which means exactly the same thing as “inshallah” in Arabic.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Great old song by Jivin' Gene!
ritchie70@reddit
My dad used this, and he was a CA/IL guy.
tachycardicIVu@reddit
I had a coworker who regularly made new ones up just to mess with people. "Knee-high to a bullfrog" (I.e. when she was young) was my favorite - they weirdly enough made sense if you thought about them long enough....like most Southernisms...
timeexterminator@reddit
“You look more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs”
wraithsonic@reddit
Busier than an old-legged man in an ass kicking contest
Caelarch@reddit
My dad's variant: "Busier than one armed paper hanger with the crabs."
Fossilhund@reddit
"Colder than a well digger's ass"
WinterMedical@reddit
Slower than a one armed paper hanger.
Unicoronary@reddit
“I don’t think his johnnycakes are quite done in the middle”
“Dont bet the trailer money”
“Tighter than Dick’s hatband under two coats of paint.”
“Run through like a gin through a cotton field.”
“Dont know whether to wind my watch or howl at the moon.”
TheNavigatrix@reddit
“Ridden hard and put away wet.”
QuinceDaPence@reddit
"Wound up like a 9 day clock"
"Staring at that like a calf at a new gate"
"...6 ways to Sunday"
tarheel_204@reddit
My favorite Southern phrase of all time 😂
Mental_Newspaper3812@reddit
“You look more uncomfortable than a couch in a room full of VD Vance’s”
AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit
Your comment was removed as it violates Rule 12, “Answers and comment replies should be serious and useful.”
Please consider this a warning as repeated violations will result in a ban.
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Oaken_beard@reddit
…….ew
Express-Stop7830@reddit
Mom? You have a reddit account???
🤣 My mom frequently reminds me that her mom used to say this one. I've never heard anyone else use it ❤️
bladel@reddit
“He was more frustrated than a one-legged cat trying to bury turds on a frozen pond.”
s1a1om@reddit
Never heard that one before, but I love it.
swampthingfromhell@reddit
My mom always told me I was ‘humped up like a toad frog’ when I was pouting as a kid. I said it one time to friends and never lived it down.
AvailableAd6071@reddit
You lie like a dog
AvailableAd6071@reddit
Fell out the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
No-Understanding-912@reddit
Can't see through muddy water - means you're in the way
Express-Stop7830@reddit
Also something being clear as mud.
ouch_that_hurts_@reddit
Reminds me of: You make a better door than a window.
Bright_Ices@reddit
I thought everyone knew that one.
Express-Stop7830@reddit
Not in Hawaii apparently.
sad_white_drizzles@reddit
"There's more than one way to skin cat"
1Negative_Person@reddit
“It’s raining like a cow pissin’ on a flat rock”
Dry-Nefariousness400@reddit
Colder than a witches tit in January.
Slower than molasses in the winter.
Star-Sole_@reddit
“Louder than two skeletons fuckin’ on a tin roof”
LordBofKerry@reddit
That one is totally new to me. I'm going to have to start using it. Thanks.
DejaBlonde@reddit
What's funny is the southernisms make the most sense. If I ever hear a new one, they almost always make sense immediately.
My favorite is to say someone "couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel"
osteologation@reddit
bump on a log doesnt seem uniquely southern. im northern and familiar with it. has me thinking for sure. i know i heard it as a child.
ponpiriri@reddit
I hate hearing non southerners say "bless your heart" since its become popular online
Aggravating-Rule-445@reddit
They don’t even translate well outside of the south sometimes. My relatives from Illinois were very confused by the phrase “fixing to” that means “about to do it soon”.
They thought I meant that I was going to repair something.
PlannerSean@reddit
Bless your heart
Maleficent_Quail_913@reddit
Hornier than a three-balled tomcat.
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
Sweating like a whore in church
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
Colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra
dontforgettowriteme@reddit
That dog don't hunt.
It's hotter than blue blazes.
Don't have a hissy fit.
I've run all over hell's half acre.
I'd love to see how these translate lol.
Unicoronary@reddit
Ah one of my mom’s faves - you reminded me.
“Pitching a fit with a hole in it.”
dontforgettowriteme@reddit
That's a big fit!
Unicoronary@reddit
A whole walleyed shit fit yeah.
MadDocHolliday@reddit
"Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit
Hell, even some northerners mistake "bless your heart" as a nice thing to say.
CommercialWorried319@reddit
I mean say that with that deep south butter melting accent I don't even care.
That accent is hypnotic
Now with the Texas accent, or at least my area you don't even have to understand the words, the intent is pretty clear 😆
Unicoronary@reddit
We’re a very direct people.
mattwan@reddit
And they're right. "Bless your heart" is usually used sincerely. It can be used ironically, but so can just about any set phrase expressing sympathy or appreciation. I have no idea how outsiders got this idea that it's primarily used passive-aggressively; maybe because it's a little unusual in that it can be used to express either sympathy or appreciation, depending on context?
Unicoronary@reddit
That must just be where you’re living.
Here, if you say it to an adult that isnt going through it - it’s condescending.
It’s meant to be. “Bless your heart” is something we say to kids when they’re upset about kid things.
Saying “bless your heart to adult” can mean giving legitimate sympathy. But mostly it’s saying “god Youre a being a child right now.”
iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit
I'm not an outsider, I grew up down there.
It's always used to express sympathy, but more often in a passive aggressive "I'm sorry, you're so hopeless" kind of way as it is to express sympathy for actual loss.
People say "I'm sorry for your loss" at a funeral, bless your heart isn't used when you're really sincere nearly as often as when you're not.
typhoidtrish@reddit
I’m with you. I grew up in Georgia and currently live outside of Birmingham. Been in the south my entire life. My friend’s husband is from Utah and he had no idea that most of our “bless their heart”s are said with sarcasm. He’s a good sport about it though. It’s definitely a phrase used more to express pity for another person’s hopelessness or dumbness.
beenoc@reddit
It just means "I feel pity for you." It can be genuine pity, or "I feel pity for you because you're so dumb, don't know how you've made it this far."
Aggressive_Syrup2897@reddit
Exactly this. I've more often heard it used genuinely, and only occasionally have I heard it used ironically.
deadlyhausfrau@reddit
Oooooh you grew up around some catty people. It's about 50/50 nice/condescending or sarcastic where I'm from.
mattwan@reddit
Fair enough. My experience has been the opposite, but experiences vary.
battery19791@reddit
Well, it is context specific. Give someone a baked good for no specific reason, vs someone just said the dumbest thing you've ever heard.
JohnnyCoolbreeze@reddit
Yeah, the folks that think this is always the supreme southern insult are making a huge leap. It’s a multi-purpose phrase and is as often sympathetic as it is smart ass.
poorperspective@reddit
Yeah, this is the lowest grade of “insult disguised as a compliment” that is prevalent in southern culture.
My grandmother has an entire list of these than just “ bless your heart.”It’s a full on way of life.
And when you think of famous southern novelist like Mark Twain or Tennessee Williams, it’s a whole cultural attitude.
Unicoronary@reddit
One that outsiders dont really get and we never really talk about -
Our use of titles. You can use someone’s formal title “Mr./Ms./Dr.” to be respectful, or you can use it to be disrespectful depending on how and when you use it.
It’s kinda tbe extension of another southernism - “putting on airs.”
It’s why we do the “Mr. Man/Miss Priss” thing. Use the title and it’s like sarcastically saying “wow arent you a big man?”
Unicoronary@reddit
Yeah a lot of ours are context dependent bc of the “southern aristocracy.” We baked plausible deniability into a lot of our sayings.
Proud-Delivery-621@reddit
Hangin in there like a hair on a biscuit
Unicoronary@reddit
Thats just finer than frog hair.
RockStar5132@reddit
I wonder how well “bless your heart” will translate outside the us hahaha
muhhuh@reddit
Busier than a one legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen pond
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Was used on Long Island at least in the 70s&80s.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
Is this Southern? My Midwestern parents said this
ATLien_3000@reddit
Bless their hearts.
justlkin@reddit
Yeah, that's not a southern expression, though there are certainly quite a few distinct to the south. I'm Minnesotan and we say that all the time.
eugenesbluegenes@reddit
That's a fairly common saying out west in my experience.
kaatie80@reddit
I heard bump on a log a lot as a kid growing up in Los Angeles
achaedia@reddit
My grandma was southern so I use language passed down from her to my mom to me. I don’t even think about them being southernisms unless people point it out to me.
Express-Stop7830@reddit
I never did until I moved away lol. And then I visit the family in NC and realize that my Southernisms barely scratch the surface of Southern sweet talkin' lol
SenorVajay@reddit
Southernisms just sound so funny and old timey. Even western sounding isms can get people who just don’t speak in such phrases.
IntrovertedFruitDove@reddit
Telling someone "break a leg" instead of "good luck" is a superstition--it's bad luck to wish you GOOD luck for a performance, because you might jinx the person.
This is a line of thought that's similar to giving infants bad names meant to confuse the spirits into leaving them alone, until they're older and can get a normal/nicer name.
pottedPlant_64@reddit
Pretty much anything colonel potter said: mud in your eye, hitch in your giddy up, etc
KathyA11@reddit
Horse hockey. Mule muffins.
Scrapper-Mom@reddit
Piss or get off the pot. Meaning to stop messing around and get down to business.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
I've always heard that one as defecate.
KathyA11@reddit
Ditto.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
I've always heard shit lol.
LiveArrival4974@reddit
Well "Break a leg" is supposed to sound mean. The stage (if you know why it's referred to as "The Scottish Play") is full of superstitions.
JewelerDry6222@reddit
"Not for Nothing". It means to do something for a good reason.
kitchengardengal@reddit
My ex from NY/NJ used to say "Not for nothin". I'm from the Midwest and had never heard that. Still sounds odd to me.
KathyA11@reddit
It's a common phrase in the metro NYC area.
BullPropaganda@reddit
Most people use it the same way as "for what it's worth"
looselyhuman@reddit
When I hear an Italian gangster-type say that, I interpret it as kind of a humble/polite disagreement. I guess it's kind of "I got a good reason for piping up."
"Not for nothing boss, but.."
teslaactual@reddit
Fanny pack
Silly_Somewhere1791@reddit
You need that like a moose needs a hat rack.
KathyA11@reddit
Like a submarine needs a screen door.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
Like a fish needs a bicycle.
Equivalent-Speed-631@reddit
You need that like a hole in your head.
PurpleHoulihan@reddit
“He really got my goat.”
Appropriate_Hat638@reddit
Racehorses will often be stabled with a little buddy, such as a donkey or goat, to help keep them calm while traveling. If a competitor steals a rival’s stall-mate, the horse will get riled up and potentially lose the race.
Old-Maintenance-8301@reddit
That’s where that is from?! I love this
KathyA11@reddit
Dead heat, on the schneid (which comes from betting), longshot, across the board, down to the wire, frontrunner, by a nose, the chalk (again, from betting), wire-to-wire, in the money, on the board, in the homestretch.
FoucaultsPudendum@reddit
The Southeastern United States (Appalachia and the Blue Ridge especially), a sunshower is often referred to as “The Devil’s beating his wife”
NonBinaryKenku@reddit
There’s a term for this in Malay, translates to “hot rain” and it has all the same superstitions about health threats attached to it as cold rain does in the northern climes.
Floridaman_1991@reddit
I asked my grandma one time if it is snowing when the suns out if that meant the devil was beating his wife in the freezer. She just laughed. It actually was snowing when the sun was out when I asked her.
harsinghpur@reddit
I hear this used as an example but it confuses me a little bit. Like others say, I don't think too much about a word for it. Is it just a folk saying, like you see the weather and say, "Ah, the devil's beating his wife" as an aside? Or is it something you say to convey information, like, "You should take an umbrella in case the devil starts beating his wife later," or "Yesterday when we were out for a walk the devil was beating his wife"?
pearlrose85@reddit
I heard this one for the first time from my grandmother, who had been born and raised in Florida. It's one of those few very specific memories - I was six years old and we were in the car in a parking lot of a Chinese restaurant after church and she said it because right as we pulled up it started raining, despite the sun being out.
I was familiar with sunshowers, being a Florida kid, but I'd never heard anyone else say that phrase before that. I have heard it a handful of times since, though. More often since moving to a more rural part of the state.
a11encur1@reddit
The Japanese call a Sunshower a "fox wedding"
Unicoronary@reddit
Technically theirs is a little different.
It’s actually a kitsune wedding, referencing the mythical creature That happens to be a fox.
iamkme@reddit
I have never heard the term sun shower, but when you said “the devils beating his wife” I knew exactly what you were talking about. I’m from Texas.
Aggressive-Emu5358@reddit
Same, hear it all the time and only recently learned of the term sunshower.
whiskeynkettlebells@reddit
I've never heard either of these terms, and now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure we even had a term for when it's sunny and raining at the same time. We just said, "Hey, look - it's raining, but the sun's out!" (Midwest)
OneleggedPeter@reddit
Same in New Mexico
boopbaboop@reddit
I think at one point I asked my dad how it could be sunny and raining at the same time, and he just called it a “phenomenon” so we all ended up calling it that. (My dad isn’t a native English speaker, for the record)
jazzminarino@reddit
Grew up Mid-Atlantic and Florida with Appalachian roots. Also never heard of sun shower, but know this term. Said it to my husband and a friend the other day, the friend looked at me in abject horror. I had to tell them this is a legit saying and to Google it, that I wasn't just ad hoc referencing domestic violence.
AvonMustang@reddit
https://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/sunshower-map.jpg
Vulpix_lover@reddit
The French have it weirder, they say "the sun is out, the devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter."
HaplessReader1988@reddit
New York stretch of the Appalachians, it was dwarves playing nine pins. But I haven't heard anybody but me use it in thirty years!
Not_A_Crazed_Gunman@reddit
Fiance is from upstate SC and had never heard of this until I (a Canadian) brought it up as a fun fact. I wonder how common it really is these days
ATLien_3000@reddit
Still reasonably common.
AndyPharded@reddit
"Hi there, I'm an American." Doesn't translate well in a lot of places.
LaLa_MamaBear@reddit
“My dogs are barking” meaning my feet hurt.
watercouch@reddit
“I could care less”
Everywhere else in the English speaking world: “I couldn’t care less”
SaveFerrisVote4Pedro@reddit
In the USA, rooting for someone is to wish them good luck
In Australia, rooting is slang for having sex.
So, a teacher telling a student:
In USA, it's words of encouragement, but in Australia, it's creepy and perverse.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
A British woman explaining to her American colleagues why she seems not to be fully alert at a meeting: "Sorry, but I was knocked up early this morning."
LaLa_MamaBear@reddit
🤣🤣🤣
Grace_Alcock@reddit
Definitely too much information.
LaLa_MamaBear@reddit
Has anyone said, “Hold your horses!” to mean Be patient. Calm down. Don’t rush me.
old_Spivey@reddit
Short bus
LaLa_MamaBear@reddit
Ooof. 😬
fox3actual@reddit
"Born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a triple."
bebefinale@reddit
“Bush league” was not a phrase that was understood outside the US
TerribleKangaroo8618@reddit
“So we had a school shooting drill today…”
Academic-Balance6999@reddit
I once shocked some European coworkers by saying “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
Old_Palpitation_6535@reddit
I always wonder if the people using this expression actually know more than one way.
IrieSwerve@reddit
When my daughter was 4, I said “It’s like killing two birds with one stone,” and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked why anyone would kill a bird. 😆
BoofusDewberry@reddit
I have a strong feeling this saying is referring to catfish and not felines.
Spenny_All_The_Way@reddit
Doing some googling, they were referring to skinning felines for fur coats and the multiple ways of skinning was whether the cat was alive or dead.
name_changed_5_times@reddit
There’s more than one kind of cat to skin
TruckADuck42@reddit
If you really want to screw with them, go with "fuck a pig". No idea if its common outside of my area (and blue-collar career), but I hear that fairly frequently. I tried googling it to find out but... yeah, I didn't know Google would even link to websites like that...
MonkeyAmongChimps@reddit
It's fuck a duck in Oklahoma
TruckADuck42@reddit
Oh, its fuck a duck here too. "Fuck a pig" goes in place of "skin a cat", not on its own. See also, "How do you want to fuck this pig?"
The point is it makes you do a double take because you're expecting the normal line and instead it was weird.
WerewolfCalm5178@reddit
I've heard "fuck a duck" but not "fuck a pig".
Both_Painter_9186@reddit
Never heard this. Ive lived in NY, GA, and VA. I’d definitely be like “what the fuck are you talking about?” If someone said this to me.
Traditional_Way1052@reddit
Yeah, not here. Never heard that in nyc lol.
amyn2511@reddit
I once saw a funny video a German guy did about misunderstanding the term “party pooper”
Waiting_for_clarity@reddit
"Chill out, dick wad." -T-800 Terminator.
etchedchampion@reddit
According to my Australian husband, it's the phrase "all set."
IrieSwerve@reddit
Not sure is these are outside the USA, but I often say to my kids “hold your horses”. I’ve heard some Southerners say some crazy stuff, “Ain’t that a kick in the head” or “better than a click in the head” My older friend says “Now we’re cooking with gasoline” joking about starting to finally finish a task. I think it was a commercial from way back?
Ecofre-33919@reddit
I decided to drop in!
Literally that can mean you jumped down from somewhere. Where? You could have someone looking up?
Weekly_March@reddit
I've heard "no problem" can mean different things abroad
katarh@reddit
Somehow, a large chunk of us borrowed "no worries" from the Australians.
I think it's those of us who grew up with The Lion King.
Weekly_March@reddit
Wow. I never knew that was an Australian thing. I tend to use that one a lot.
Fodraz@reddit
That doesn't even mean the same to everybody in the US, depending on generation
TruckADuck42@reddit
What does it mean other than the literal "we don't have a problem?"
Fodraz@reddit
Younger generations use it in place of "you're welcome"
MrVeazey@reddit
Or "It wasn't an inconvenience."
Fodraz@reddit
Yeah but it can come across as kinda rude in some cases, like a cashier rings you up & you say "thanks", then they say "NP"--of course it wasn't an inconvenience, you were doing your job. It's one thing if somebody went out of their way to do something for you, but for something simple, it's strange
Weekly_March@reddit
It's not really that deep. It's just another way to say you're welcome.
cataholicsanonymous@reddit
Yeah tell that to some boomers though, they get really riled up over it. Kind of like when someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas 🙄
Weekly_March@reddit
That's their problem. It'll solve itself with time.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
This is considered rude now? Sheesh.
jda404@reddit
Yeah I am 35 and I use it as you're welcome sometimes. As with most language, context matters. If a coworker says hey thanks for doing such and such for me, sometimes I will say no problem. It's both a you're welcome and it was no big deal/didn't mind doing it.
TruckADuck42@reddit
Ah. I guess i use it that way, too. Still literal, though. "It was no problem" instead of "we have no problem".
justlkin@reddit
Many moons ago, when I was in training for my first fast food job, I was told not to say "no problem" because some people could take it to mean that it otherwise might have been a problem, not necessarily that you're saying "you're welcome". I've heard it mentioned a few times again over the years. Obviously, I think it's not terribly common. I personally think it's just people looking to find offense where there is none.
pan_chromia@reddit
Anything having to do with cowboys. I used the expression “roped into it” with a non-native English speaker and they were so confused… I tried to explain and when I found myself saying, “like when you lasso a cow” it clicked. We both laughed about it after that
Unicoronary@reddit
“Got a burr under his saddle”
“Bawling” is specifically referring to calves.
tachycardicIVu@reddit
Oh man so an old coworker and her sibling all have names that start with Br... and her dad was like "yeah they’re the three burrs in my saddle" and I about lost it. I don’t know if he'd planned that or not but he had a great sense of humor. (He loved his kids, don’t worry lol.)
Doomsauce1@reddit
God damn it, now i gotta go look at pictures of baby cows.
TrelanaSakuyo@reddit
Make it worse. Look at Highland calves.
Unicoronary@reddit
You won’t regret it
Sudden_Nose9007@reddit
Saying I was loaded for bear confused my non-American friends once. It means you are ready for anything, even confrontation or challenges.
240_dollarsofpudding@reddit
My friend is French and asked us to go dancing. I said one of us had “two left feet.” He looked really confused/concerned until we explained. Later, while playing football, he dropped the ball and proclaimed he “had two left hands.”
provinground@reddit
I recently learned. “Brownie points” was a very confusing phrase! I told my Russian coworker she’d get some brownie points that day for coming in on her day off. Essentially- it means nothing. Brownie points are just like - figurative pat on the back. It’s a good thing but it isn’t actually a brownie! Or points it’s just a saying saying people will remember you helped them out! But at the end of the shift.. she asked for her brownie and I was like omg you’re so cute and then I realized that saying is so dumb cause you get nothing!!!!
endergrrl@reddit
"Brownie points" comes from the girl scouts. Brownies are one level of Girl Scouts and had (don't know if it's still the same) to earn points towards their awards for achievement.
katarh@reddit
Brownie points also don't carry over to juniors, who are the ones who actually get to earn badges.
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
I wonder about sayings derived from Native American cultures: potlatch/potluck, peace pipe, wampum, etc.
katarh@reddit
The other day I saw a child in a backpack stroller and went, "oh hey clever a modern papoose" and had to try to remember exactly when I learned that term.
Turns out it's Algonquin.
amallucent@reddit
I feel like any common idioms would do.
"That Sucks."
"Spill the Beans."
"You let the cat out of the bag."
"Kick the bucket"
"Shotgun!"
"Lend me your ears!" <------Archer reference.
"Hold your Horses."
GaryJM@reddit
What's the "Archer reference"? I only know that quote from Shakespeare.
amallucent@reddit
Heart of Archness:
Archer: "take a knee"
[Noah: "that won't translate. It's like last week when you said... "lend me your ears." I can't do idioms - sorry"
Archer: "you don't change horses in mid…"
Noah: "Idiom! Idiom!"
nickheathjared@reddit
The sheets to the wind. Half in the bag.
OxycontinEyedJoe@reddit
I was at a bar recently and I heard someone ask his wife "do you want a sprite or do you want a drink?" And I was just thinking how confusing this could be to a non English speaker.
Sketchylefty11@reddit
We'll pray on it
BelligerentWyvern@reddit
Had a Vietnamese coworker ask me after a staff meeting what "biting the bullet" meant. It was weird to have to explain that it just meant "there is nothing to be done but do the difficult thing." It was in regards to some pretty nasty maintenance we had to do on some machines. Almost everyone left that day covered in grime and sweat.
4Q69freak@reddit
It’s not my first rodeo is usually said sarcastically, at least when I say it. I’ve worked at the same company for 20 years and load customers vehicles with a forklift almost every day. Always have that one customer that thinks it’s my first day, they usually get the “not my first rodeo” comment.
kitchengardengal@reddit
I (69f Georgia US) was volunteering at a household goods giveaway for international freshmen at our local university. A German student was looking at a ceramic statue of a sleeping dog, and I said to her, "That puppy's got your name written all over it!". She looked up at me and picked up the puppy, turning it this way and that with a frantic look on her face obviously not understanding in the least what that meant.
ELMUNECODETACOMA@reddit
Reminds me of the Blackadder episode where Baldrick carved his name into a rifle cartridge and carried it around with him so that he always knew where the "bullet with his name on it" was.
smartaleky@reddit
"Break a leg" used in theater, to one heading to an audition. To outwardly wish they get the part is considered bad luck, or tempting the fates, so one says "break a leg" hoping they will get in a CAST...get it? Cast for a broken bone, but really be a.member of the CAST in the actual production, meaning- they get the part.
Unable_Tumbleweed364@reddit
When they say rooting for you. My Aussie self can't.
TenMoon@reddit
My Southern-born mom used to threaten to snatch us kids baldheaded. Since none of the other moms in the neighborhood ever said that, I concluded that my mom was seriously planning to do that to me one day.
mrsockburgler@reddit
Smoke a roach.
InevitableRhubarb232@reddit
It’s not English, but I learned a scene in Spanish that is translated into English as “throw the party out the window” which means throw an awesome party
InternalImpression51@reddit
I had a roommate in college from Cyprus, and he learned "Kings English", so occasionally I had to explain things to him. He came back to the room, rather upset. I asked what happened, and he said that the rubber tip on his pencil ✏️ had fallen off. He raised his hand and when they asked about the issue, he stood up and assertively stated that he needed,"A rubber!" Of course, most of the class laughed, but he held up his pencil and then they understood. So I explained that the common word for the rubber end of the pencil here is called,"An eraser." He was still annoyed, but never asked that question the same way again.
tr6tevens@reddit
One of the first widespread uses of cautchouc / latex gum in Europe was to rub out pencil marks. The real question is why we extended the name "rubber" to refer to the material.
Grace_Alcock@reddit
That dog don’t hunt.
Bless your heart.
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
Almost all of the phrases I've read here are also a challenge for autistic people to understand. My cousin was so interested in them. She heard that there's more than one way to skin a cat and fixated on it.
Joel_feila@reddit
I wonder if that also applies to fixing to. Somce that less an idiom and more just a nom standard definition
Literary-Anarchist@reddit
"The whole nine yards"
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
Anyone that flew American made bombers in the '40s may get that one.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Interestingly Wikipedia references a 1855 short story where it's the punchline!
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
The etymology I'd always heard was a 9 yard ammo belt for a waisted gunner in a B-17 or B -24
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Me too but apparently it's several wars older!
Literary-Anarchist@reddit
Ammo belts for machine guns in general are 9 yards (or so) long
Padgetts-Profile@reddit
You really screwed the pooch on this one.
Small mistakes should not be compared to fucking dogs.
Infamous-Phone-1973@reddit
My favorite is "you're the one fucking this dog, I'm just holding its head."
Deolater@reddit
I think it's really weird that commonwealth countries seem to use almost the same expression (although more explicit) to mean standing around chatting
winksoutloud@reddit
For idle chatting I'd say "shoot(ing) the shit."
macthecomedian@reddit
What did the one scientist who was conducting sexual experiments on dogs, say to the other scientist?
If you need me, I'll be in the lab.
NSNick@reddit
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read.
KevrobLurker@reddit
Groucho Marx!
NSNick@reddit
Indeed!
Padgetts-Profile@reddit
👉🚪
DocJones89@reddit
Dickin’ the dog is one I have used for years. A lot of weird things with dogs.
WolverineJive_Turkey@reddit
In a similar vein, when you're not really doing anything, my friends would say like, "just dickin the chimp."
Unicoronary@reddit
Speaking of that one.
“The tail’s wagging the dog.”
FoxConsistent4406@reddit
Just for giggles we used to say it as "pooed the screwch"
Dampware@reddit
Just for gits and shiggles?
Padgetts-Profile@reddit
I love it
Terradactyl87@reddit
The original saying is actually "don't fuck the dog" but it got toned down.
iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit
Hey man, I'm not judging you for who you bring home after tying one on the pub.
Padgetts-Profile@reddit
I need someone to hold me accountable and it sure as hell ain’t gonna be me.
TheCustomShirtGuy@reddit
"could care less" Means the exact opposite in any other language to what the Americans use it for
ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit
The name idiom means unique so it makes sense thy don’t translate well to other manages or even other cultures
Kamena90@reddit
Ok, so I'm not sure anyone but my great grandmother said this one. She would call pooping "killing a bear". If anyone else has heard this one please let me know! I've literally never heard anyone else say it.
Joel_feila@reddit
I jabe heard called "taking a country" but not that.
Soosietyrell@reddit
“you clean up good” to a coworker who has dressed up for a customer or vendor from some non US cultures sounds offensive. I had to explain it a couple times so I stopped using it. In all my former jobs, it was a compliment
Elegant_Bluebird_460@reddit
My German colleagues have often been mightily confused by "drink the Koolaid" and appalled when it is explained.
mittenknittin@reddit
It’s such an evocative shorthand, for what was an appalling situation: that a large group of people would buy in so thoroughly to a cult that they would willingly poison themselves and die horribly
Joel_feila@reddit
Unfun fact, only about a 1/3 wer suicide the rest were forced to drink. Source and interview with one of survivors
Fluster_of_Clucks@reddit
We use this expression so much in the Army. We even call some soldiers in certain unite Koolaid drinkers.
5pinktoes@reddit
I've shared this before but I will do so, again.
A internet friend from the UK visited the stated and he visited Dallas and Houston, if I remember correctly. He mentioned cashiers, gas station attendants, etc when learning the business would say to him, "y'all take care! and " stay safe! ". He told me he first didn't know if it was a warning or a veiled threat. lol. He finally asked and was told it was a friendly goodbye in Texas. I chuckled and said to him, 'bless your heart! " 😁
Fuzzy_Attempt6989@reddit
You don't translate idioms literally, in any language!, you have to understand the meaning and what phrase it corresponds to in your language
Joel_feila@reddit
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Relative_Roof4085@reddit
First base, second base, third base
Relative_Roof4085@reddit
Kicking a dead horse.
Relative_Roof4085@reddit
Raining cats and dogs.
PotentialCoyote4921@reddit
My aunt hosted an exchanged student and they were deeply confused about being told they were acting like they had ants in their pants.
Foreign-Context-468@reddit
Dollars to doughnuts. My ex husband used to say this all the time.
Eleganceshmelegance@reddit
What does it mean?
Foreign-Context-468@reddit
It’s used to emphasize your certainty for something. Like, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that guy is a cop. Lol
b0ingy@reddit
you don’t know shit from shinola
SpermicidalManiac666@reddit
My friend had a coworker from the Netherlands visiting - had never been to the states - and in recounted to something my friend said I said “get the fuck outta here” and the Dutch guy cracked up which I always thought was funny. Never really thought of that as an “idiom” but it was definitely very American to him lol
CatBoyTrip@reddit
well if that don’t butter my biscuit.
OPmomRSC123@reddit
I said "shit or get off the pot" to a gen Z American the other day and she looked at me like I'd invented the expression and it was crazy. So I imagine it also doesn't translate well?
SgtHulkasBigToeJam@reddit
Put you John Hancock right here.
Mikeupinhere@reddit
It's Herbie Hancock. Lol
toastagog@reddit
I always say John Footpenis
Former-Interview-169@reddit
“Monday morning quarterback” is a bit of a weird one.
Vesper2000@reddit
None of my Irish colleagues understood when I offered to “run interference” with our client for them.
Am_I_a_Guinea_Pig@reddit
I had no idea this was a football reference. I always just figured it was a fancier way to say you were going to try to prevent someone from doing something, i.e., interfere.
TechnologyDragon6973@reddit
I’m American and I wouldn’t understand that either. I think it’s a football-ism, but that’s the most I know.
Vesper2000@reddit
It is from football, you are correct
TechnologyDragon6973@reddit
That makes sense. I don’t like football, and I don’t hang out with people who watch football either, so I don’t use football idioms.
juliabk@reddit
Just as long as you don’t do iron the streets and scare the horses.
Soft_Assistant6046@reddit
"Fixin' to do something"
juliabk@reddit
ARGH! I have hated that one all my life. “Fixin’ dinner.” I didn’t know it was broken. “Making dinner“ is just as bad. I remember hearing someone talk about “Makin’ groceries”. That made me just want to bang my head against the wall.
PlatinumPOS@reddit
I’m American and I needed “finna” explained to me.
Top-Assignment-6783@reddit
I think that’s more of a black slang that crossed over
Familiar-Ad-1965@reddit
Southern slang. Not limited to Black Southerners
DanFlashesSales@reddit
"Finna" is a black thing, "fixing to" is used by both white and black people in the South
Unicoronary@reddit
AAVE is largely what it is because it was born in the south (because of slavery, then from sharecropping).
There’s some Thats more modern and unique, but most of it was, and is, still used by blacks and whites alike in the south. Especially the working class and poorer south.
tangledbysnow@reddit
Something to do with Scots & Irish as well since those languages and regions don’t use “to be” which is also a common trait to most (many? All?) African languages. It’s a commonality between the two native languages for those regions which resulted in being fully absorbed into Southern language/culture so easily. It’s an interesting linguistic characteristic.
P00PooKitty@reddit
It’s more specifically a southern black thing that was also ported to places like LA and Chicago. Black Bostonians of both the black American and Caribbean variety had to have it explained to them as well
shakedancer@reddit
fwiw i’m a black bostonian with zero southern roots and have always known what finna means
Anathemautomaton@reddit
It's like "gonna" but with "fixing to" instead of "going to".
"Fixing to" basically means "intending to".
Rev_Creflo_Baller@reddit
"Fixing to" implies ongoing preparation with intent to act soon. "I'm fixing to go to the store," means the speaker is writing a shopping list or hunting for her car keys.
Metharos@reddit
Can also imply mental preparation. I can be sat in my chair, but still "fixin' to go to the store," I'm simply in the "thinking real hard about it and trying to work up the will to put on pants" phase.
Puddin370@reddit
Can also be "fitna".
AssortedGourds@reddit
It’s just a shortened version of “fixin’ to”
QuinceDaPence@reddit
Fixing to
Fixin' to
Fixin' ta
Fixin' 'na
Fi'n' 'na
Finn'a
Frodo34x@reddit
https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/fixin-to
I found this article really interesting
GazelleOpposite1436@reddit
Great article on this!
goog1e@reddit
I would guess it stems from situations where you actually WOULD be " fixing up" something.
Fixing up or getting fixed up is hard to translate, and applying it more broadly makes it impossible.
Making the small fixes needed to prepare to perform the action. Finna.
Ex: I'm fixing up the house before people come over tonight
I'm finna have people over.
Sea_Macaron_7962@reddit
I always forget that there’s states that don’t understand this or haven’t heard it before. I’m in Texas and it’s of constant use. It does the job so well.
Unique-Ad-9316@reddit
I grew up in the south and always said that. After we moved to Illinois, a friend was dying laughing at me for saying it. I found out at the age of 40 that not everyone uses the term!
Unicoronary@reddit
“What are you fixing?”
“To do it.”
Attila226@reddit
Let’s talk turkey
Salt-Path3779@reddit
I had a boyfriend who had a colleague from Sri Lanka. Some thing or another happened at work and he said he wasn’t going to be the blame goat. He meant scape goat but blame goat is so much better. That was 25 years ago and I’ve been saying blame goat ever since.
skeleton-operator@reddit
I think “not my first rodeo” IS sarcastic no matter how you look at it.
BitNorthOfForty@reddit
“all hat, no cattle”
freebaseclams@reddit
All fart, no poop
Zopoboss1@reddit
All piss no shit?
peptodismal13@reddit
I love this for describing people in my hobby spaces that have spent oodles of money on the items related to said hobby when they should have really spent that money on lessons to get better.
sheepofdarkness@reddit
I've lived in Texas my whole life and somehow missed that one until this last summer.
ScholarEmotional9888@reddit
Yeah, no. No, yeah.
FUCancer_2008@reddit
Idioms never translate well from any language.
TherianRose@reddit
More than one way to skin a cat = there's multiple ways to accomplish that task
Can't swing a dead cat without hitting [XYZ] = [XYZ] is extremely common; usually said about businesses (e.g. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Starbucks nowadays)
sanehamster@reddit
Similarly "not room to swing a cat in here" - this is a small room. A friend once proposed to name a small house he was buying "meow - thump"
TherianRose@reddit
Lol I feel bad but that would be a funny Wi-Fi name
quizzicalturnip@reddit
Party pooper.
Radiant-Pause9522@reddit
Cold as a witch's titty in a cast-iron bra
Marcudemus@reddit
"Feeling like a redheaded step-child" is one I've used in conversation with Germans and I'm not sure if they understood it, lol.
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
I'm guessing we picked that up from the English.
looselyhuman@reddit
Or the Irish.
KevrobLurker@reddit
....or "like a rented mule."
Modern equivalent would be "He treats his car as if he were renting it."
Fluster_of_Clucks@reddit
I’ve also heard “beaten like a runaway slave.”
KevrobLurker@reddit
I grew up in the North, so we did not use that. I get it, though.
HRHDechessNapsaLot@reddit
I grew up in the South and my mama would have washed my mouth out with soap if I said something like that!
AdSafe7627@reddit
or “Drive it like you stole it”.
babygyrl09@reddit
Extremely carefully so the cops don't pull you over?
AdSafe7627@reddit
hahahah. you wish
criminals aren’t exactly known for their rational, measured responses
Unicoronary@reddit
“Beating a dead horse,” too.
Speaking of mules “dont have the sense god gave a jackass.”
Uber_Reaktor@reddit
They are incredibly literal people, I never feel like I can joke with Germans the way I can with basically anyone else. Sarcasm and such is... not their thing.
crumblingruin@reddit
Someone in the US once asked me (British), when talking about my family, "Who do you favour?" I had no idea that what they were asking was who I look like.
Colour4Life@reddit
I have a Nigerian heritage and I have family who say this too. I always thought it was common english, I guess not.
AtlasThe1st@reddit
Odd, Ive never heard that used in that context, either. Id assume they meant who my favorite family member is.
PolyesterBellBottoms@reddit
I grew up in the southern half of the US, and the term was used more by older Boomers and their parents. I haven’t heard it in a while.
WritPositWrit@reddit
My kids enjoy giggling at “6 7”. Good luck translating that.
eileen404@reddit
Had to explain to a new English speaking roommate she didn't want a jacket to help her break wind.
tjbmurph@reddit
"I support the 2nd amendment"
Sal1160@reddit
“It might not be 12 inches, but it smells like a foot”
Can’t say that in metric
vibe_ology@reddit
‘I could care less’ makes no sense to me. ‘I couldn’t care less’ is what is used outside the US
Tricky_Ad_1870@reddit
Monday morning quarterback. I've had to explain this a few times.
big_data_mike@reddit
Piece of cake
Much_Palpitation8055@reddit
It’s raining harder than a twin counted cow pissing on a flat rock. You can translate that to any other language and I doubt it would make a lick of sense
yyythoo@reddit
More than two ways to skin a cat
sanehamster@reddit
"I could care less". Means exactly the opposite of what it says.
tommy-g@reddit
All of the baseball terms / phrases
RikkiLostMyNumber@reddit
The two word phrase "all set" has got to be confusing to non-Americans, even English speakers, dues to the many ways we use it.
mizuaqua@reddit
Bless your heart
Philcoman@reddit
“I plead the fifth.” Refers to the fifth amendment to the U.S. constitution, which indicates that a witness doesn’t have to give testimony that would incriminate themself. So if you are the last piece of cake and your spouse says, “Did you eat the last piece of cake? I was looking forward to it!” You might respond, “I plead the fifth.” It’s a joke, but your spouse might not think it’s funny in the moment.
vt2022cam@reddit
“Can to trim my bangs”. The front part of hair over your forehead is called your “bangs” in American English. In the UK, it’s called the fringe and bangs is a very strong sexual meaning in “the north”.
DrNurse63@reddit
In Appalachia: Lord willin and the creek don’t rise
DraperPenPals@reddit
As a southerner, I’ve drawn some crazy looks abroad by saying “I’m fixing to do that”
cross-i@reddit
“You’re my dog.“
I’ve known several foreigners from different countries who took great offense and were confused when someone was apparently complimenting them with this. (The ownership angle “my” is meant to be de-emphasized, but conveys closeness/affection, and the main point is to celebrate grit/fearlessness/accomplishment… perhaps imagine a stereotypical pitbull. Good compliment for sports, or even the world of dating. )
Eleganceshmelegance@reddit
Related: I got that dang (dog) in me.
JustBid5821@reddit
Send in the Calvary. ( I need help.)
Not my first rodeo. ( I've done this before.)
Not going to hold a gun to your head (I am not going to force you to do it.)
Seriously? (Are you serious right now?)
No reason to be ugly. ( Quit being a sarcastic POS )
Break a leg. ( Good luck.)
By hook or by crook. ( I don't care how you do it just do it.)
Eleganceshmelegance@reddit
Send in the cavalry.Cavalry means military troops, usually on horseback. Calvary refers to the place where Christ was crucified.
chicagok8@reddit
I took a course for international leadership/speaker training where they mentioned that a lot of sports sayings don’t translate well. For example “out of left field” “in the end zone” or “swing and a miss”, when describing business scenarios, might be confusing.
elcarincero@reddit
“Not my circus, not my monkey.” Only will translate to Poland I believe
drgonzo767@reddit
Bumfuck Egypt.
DesignerSeparate4166@reddit
"time to suck the daily dick" when you have to go to work.
ProfessionalCraft983@reddit
"Break a leg" is exclusively used in musical theater circles, and it's a tradition that come from a time when it was considered jinxing someone's performance to say "good luck", so they'd say "break a leg" instead as a sort of reverse-psychology against luck.
Metharos@reddit
"Break a leg" is specific to a particular superstition. It was considered bad luck to wish a performer to have a good performance on stage, so the phrase emerged as the opposite: wish for them to have a terrible accident, so that they will have a good performance.
"It's not my first rodeo" is sarcastic. It's essentially saying "piss off I know what I'm doing" but, like, with a smile behind it.
BandicootBroad@reddit
“Rooting for” a person or team sounds awkward to Australian ears (the equivalent phrase there is “going for”), because “rooting” is crass Australian slang for having sex.
Break_jump@reddit
no shit (meaning really? no kidding!)
The_Sofa_Queen@reddit
“Hug it out, bitch.”
SushiGirlRC@reddit
"Shit in one hand and wish in the other" The 2nd half of "see which one fills up first." isn't always added.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
"Shit in one hand and wish in the other" The 2nd half of "see which one fills up first." isn't always added.
Nottacod@reddit
Pissing in someone's cornflakes
SushiGirlRC@reddit
Post toasties!
UncomfortableBike975@reddit
Heard someone confused about FYI in emails thinking the person responding to them was saying "Fuck you Idiot" not "for your information."
SushiGirlRC@reddit
We had someone at work that would respond to customer emails using f/u for follow up.
-Moose_Soup-@reddit
I know that many baseball-related expressions and idioms don't work well outside of the US, or at least outside of countries familiar with baseball.
DorsalMorsel@reddit
Do they say "Shit the bed" in other languages? Because that one seems universal.
"Never trust a fart"
"Sharting"
"See a man about a horse."
TargetCold4691@reddit
Something being the cat's pajamas.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
Or the bee's knees.
boytoy421@reddit
When I was in israel many many years ago I told the person I was with that i was going to go take a shower. She said "take it where?"
SushiGirlRC@reddit
I get asked why when I say I'm trying to get a headache lol.
Trinx_@reddit
Out in bum-fuck Egypt
nakedonmygoat@reddit
Or just BFE.
SushiGirlRC@reddit
Yep! My stepdad instead used to say "out in Waxahachie" which is a small town about an hour or more out of Dallas/Ft. Worth in Texas.
They have an annual renn faire there, and as a teen I talked my parents into going with us once. My stepdad starts the car & asks where it is and I tell him Waxahachie. He laughs & says "no really, where is it?" and the 3 of us in the car all said "Waxahachie!" at once. He said "well shit!" and shifted into drive.
webbess1@reddit
The baseball euphemisms probably don’t make sense to foreigners. “Getting to first base, second base, third base etc..”
Obsidian-Dive@reddit
Holy cow! Holy crap! Sam hell?
BeginningPhilosophy2@reddit
Whole nine yards, hail mary, knocking it out of the park, move the goalposts, sidelined, batting a thousand, monday morning quarterback, go down swinging, playing hardball, throw a curveball, out of left field, political football are some.
Bugwah@reddit
Calling "shotgun" first to sit in the front seat
SushiGirlRC@reddit
As a young adult, the reason for this saying clicked when I was watching a western lol.
TheKiddIncident@reddit
I went to high school with a French dude. The phrase "it's cold as hell today" used to drive him absolutely nuts.
"No, hell is hot or hell is cold. I cannot be both. If you say 'cold as hell' you cannot say 'hot as hell also'." We used to troll him pretty badly.
I said, "Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs" to a Polish guy last year and his brain exploded.
Fun times.
I think I need to find a new hobby.
Alum2608@reddit
All hat no cattle
bunrakoo@reddit
Long ago I had a roommate in college who was from Japan. The washing machine in the basement of our dorm broke and after weeks of shlepping my dirty clothes to another dorm I finally marched into the Housing office and insisted they send someone to fix ours, which they did the next day. When I commented to my roommate, "See? The squeaky wheel gets the grease" she looked at me with mild shock and said, "Oh no. In Japan we say "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
I once said my dog was pooped (meaning very tired) which was very confusing to my Russian friend who said “I’m sure she is sorry”
permalink_child@reddit
What does neither fluff nor feather mean?
cracksilog@reddit
Every baseball expression (and we have a lot).
—Round the bases
—The whole concept of getting lucky being assigned each base (“I reached second base last night,” etc.)
—Three strikes
—Step up to the plate
—That came out of left field
—Hit a home run
—Ballpark figure
—Am I in the ballpark?
—Softball question
—Cover your bases
—Inside baseball. Even as a native English speaker, I had no idea what this was until I was in my 30s
Beaufinngus@reddit
I could see where people might get confused by "It's a horse a piece." Hell, I moved two hours away from my hometown, same state, and the people here give me crazy looks when I say it! LOL!
psychadelicsquatch@reddit
"Balls to the wall" - there's a bit of a disputed origin, but the first recorded use was in 1967 by in an American air raid briefing during the Vietnam War. It meant pushing the throttle, and the ball grip on top, all the way forward to the wall of the cockpit.
Lurker-Lurker218@reddit
Dead on balls accurate
Taldoable@reddit
It's an industry term.
himtnboy@reddit
I thought it was an adjustable centrifugal steam engine speed governor commonly used on ships. They used spinning steel weights to control the speed. When you adjusted the governor to allow the weights to swing all the way up, the ship was at full speed.
PearlySweetcake7@reddit
I thought so too
Frodo34x@reddit
That's "balls out" that comes from that
ChemicalCockroach914@reddit
Bless your heart
Leucotheasveils@reddit
I’m from the northern us and did not know it’s a nice way of saying “screw you” until I was an adult. I thought southerners were exceptionally nice and religious, lol.
ChemicalCockroach914@reddit
We know how to be polite and when not to
AggravatingBobcat574@reddit
All hat and no cattle
dripintheocean@reddit
When I was taking Spanish, we talked about how the phrase “smart cookie” would be direct translated to “intelligent pastry.” So that’s what we called each other the rest of the semester.
SugarKyle@reddit
"Bless your heart" only works from a southerner, normally a woman, to express you are stupid.
Aggravating_Kale9788@reddit
It's not so much that it doesn't translate but that it isn't universal across all English speaking countries. I worked in a big office that had lots of overseas clients and branch offices elsewhere. One time our Australian client representative called me and was asking what the status of their request was and if I had an answer yet.... Turns out my dumbass junior coworker didn't log it at all so it was like we never got it!
I was very apologetic and while my junior was an idiot I still had to be professional to clients but I also had to tell them I didn't even look at it yet with it sounding like I messed up so I told the rep their request "got lost in the shuffle" and he said he didn't know what that meant.
I'm usually very cognizant of not using idioms with non-native English clients/branches because of obvious reasons, but I didn't know it wasn't a widely known phrase in Australia. I did not even recognize it as an idiom in the first place because surely (I thought) losing files in stacks of paper and misplacing things was pretty universal to the office world. I got caught off guard needing to explain the idiom without it sounding bad that it got misplaced all this time and he just laughed so hard at me because he'd never heard that phrase before!
Straight_Cherry996@reddit
Stretch time its the seventh inning
Leucotheasveils@reddit
Not my circus not my monkeys is an idiom in Polish.
Straight_Cherry996@reddit
I dont know polish but do use it in English very famous in the states
UnlikelyPen932@reddit
"I'm fixing to" - Ex. We're fixin' to start looking for a house to buy. Guy thought we were literally fixing/remodeling a house.
SlickDumplings@reddit
It don’t make no nevermind.
GreenTravelBadger@reddit
This is very old, but after the Civil War, former slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule. Of course, gov't reneged, but the phrase "as stubborn as a government mule" came into being. Even if someone had gotten their hands on that 40 acres and a mule, we all know the acreage would have been near worthless and the mule would have embodied all of a mule's worst faults.
I routinely accuse my mister of being as stubborn as a government mule, having heard the accusation leveled at me when I was still just a tiny wee young Badger.
PoCoKat2020@reddit
Christianese in general. Loving on people. Hedge of protection.
cocococlash@reddit
"I'm good" meaning you don't want something. "Would you like more water?" "I'm good."
1Negative_Person@reddit
I’m thinking all of the redneck idioms are probably pretty niche: “that dog won’t hunt”, “had my druthers”, “a lick of sense”, “stuck in my craw”, etc.
patticakes1952@reddit
Well bless your heart. One sandwich short of a picnic.
newbie527@reddit
I tried to make a joke with a foreign guy at work. He looked at me without comprehension. I told him I was just pulling his leg. He backed up quickly.
OldDude1391@reddit
Perhaps “That dog won’t hunt”. Or “Bless her/his heart”.
Trinx_@reddit
If it was a snake it woulda bitcha
Leucotheasveils@reddit
If it was any bigger it would’ve bit you on the nose.
nakedonmygoat@reddit
A good friend of mine once said that to a Venezuelan coworker and she was deeply confused.
AutiGaymer@reddit
Spill the tea (meaning "tell me the gossip you know")
I plead the fifth (meaning "I'm not telling" - especially because it might make me look bad)
Dish (also meaning "Let's hear the gossip/story")
TywinDeVillena@reddit
Thanks to the power of Hollywood, "to plead the fifth" is also a common saying in Spain despite our Constitution not having any amendments. The right not to answer questions that may reveal criminal responsibility is actually protected by articles 118 and 520 of the LECrim (Law on Criminal Procedure).
Sea_Macaron_7962@reddit
Oh that is so interesting!
TywinDeVillena@reddit
It is quite a well known phenomenon
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PopCulturalOsmosis
Rhine1906@reddit
Spill the tea is one of those terms that was created and privately used by the Queer African American community that spilled (pun not intended) into the mainstream via the internet.
And that part is interesting to me because a lot AAVE & QAAVE have become normal American lexicon or called “Gen Z” speak and are usually pulled into way different contexts by the time they get out there.
Because a lot of those words or phrases have pretty deep context I would think that many of them are difficult for non Americans (hell most Americans too)
Common-Parsnip-9682@reddit
“Getting over your skis” is one I didn’t hear until I was an adult.
Growing up, it was always more folksy expressions like “getting too big for your britches”. (I know they’re not exactly the same, but both are roundabout ways ti express criticism)
DiscontentDonut@reddit
"I don't give a rat's ass."
Spiritual_Being5845@reddit
About 30 years ago I was in Northern Ireland with my ex and his uncle. We were staying at a B&B and were talking with the owner. The uncle mentioned how he was moving from Paris to LA, and mentioned the change being 180°. The woman replied “Wow, that sounds very hot.”
Also around the same time I used to go on MSN chat. Someone asked me something kinda obscure and I replied “Do I look like 411?” Immediately they replied “Oh, you live in the northeast US, don’t you!” I don’t know about now, but apparently at that time we were the only ones to use that phrase. Though I don’t know if 411 still exists today so I’m guessing younger people even from the northeast wouldn’t know that one either
mmarkmc@reddit
I was in Scotland recently and heard ‘not my first rodeo’ used at least twice.
osteologation@reddit
like a monkey fuckin a football.
Karamist623@reddit
Not my circus, not my monkeys
LadyGuillotine@reddit
Also the never version, “not my chair, not my problem”
Fluster_of_Clucks@reddit
Not my pig not my farm
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Apparently, it's commonly used by the Portuguese!
ShutDownSoul@reddit
Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Probably get canceled for this ....
Runny-Yolks@reddit
Eat a bag of dicks
Jackal2332@reddit
Sports analogies. Monday morning QB, hail mary, hit it out of the park, full court press…
No-Weird3153@reddit
Calling some rando a cocksucker for being inconsiderate while asking your life partner to suck your cock. Maybe that doesn’t make sense here either.
Setter_sws@reddit
I had an employee from Estonia. It was her birthday so I asked her if she was going out on the town to "cut a rug". She had no idea what i was talking about... then I had to try to figure out how cut a rug meant dancing, and explain that...
StoneBailiff@reddit
She's "built like a brick sh*t house."
AAA515@reddit
Is that a good thing? Yes? Brick is a fine material for building any kind of house.
CryptidxChaos@reddit
Right, but that idiom is specifically talking about out houses, like outside toilets. Typically they were made of wood, so a really nice and well built or fine one would've been made of brick instead. Hence, to call something or someone well built, they or it are built like a brick shithouse.
AAA515@reddit
So, yes, good thing. Wonder why that lady got so upset being called that...
Feather757@reddit
🎶Ow She's a brick house
tcrhs@reddit
Happier than a pig in shit.
Intelligent-Sky2162@reddit
Doggie bag
sus4th@reddit
“Break a leg” is an implied play on words. When wishing an actor good luck, “break a leg” means they’d get put in a “cast,” which of course is a word referring both to the plaster put over broken limbs and the actors hired for a production.
Crylec@reddit
I’d imagine the phrase “stay black and die” will have a lot of heads turn outside the African American community.
Sensitive_Event_5453@reddit
On medical records (at least where I live) If you no longer need a certain test because of your age it will be recorded as “Aged out”. I find myself using it when it fits the situation
SassyMoron@reddit
"well I'll be a horse's ass"
ParticularLack6400@reddit
At a language school, a student from Turkey told me that a lot of our advertising comes across as demanding. Enroll now!!
TwincessAhsokaAarmau@reddit
You stuck your foot in that
peepeepoopooman1412@reddit
Calling an audible
Icooktoo@reddit
Not my circus, not my monkey’s was a popular one where I worked.
No-Type119@reddit
“ Fixin’ to” — Southern regional slang. One of ny German profs thought this was absolutely hilarious, and used to make one of my classmates, a Georgia native, say it in sentences… “ I’m fixin’ to go on ROTC maneuvers this weekend.”
At my high school we had an exchange student from a South American country who was mystified by the idiom “ hang on,” and took it literally until some kind soul finally explained to her that it meant, “ Wait,” not to physically hang on to something.
Glib1@reddit
“Gotta hold your mouth right” (primarily Southern expression) basically means “this requires technique and patience” when performing some fidgety sort of task. One of my British friends pulled me aside one night while we were talking to one of my cousins to ask what the fuck he was on about lol
rocknsg@reddit
Cake walk: Something is easy
Shooting fish in a barrel: Something is easy
Circle the wagons: Take a defensive position
_S1syphus@reddit
I recently learned that "nothing burger" isnt immediately obvious to everyone (also Americans when we try to explain something: "so think of a hamburger, right?")
Also the way was use "ass" as a stand in for "self". "Get your ass over here" "your ass is grass" "shut your bitch ass up" these would seem nonsensical translated literally
Stalker-of-Chernarus@reddit
Hurry up and wait
nscarney01@reddit
“Knowing enough French to put my foot in my mouth” didn’t translate well into French according to some colleagues from Toulouse.
gladiatrix14@reddit
Crying wolf, jumping the shark/gun, hit the road/hay/sack, or as the young kids say today “crash out” lol
Federal-Membership-1@reddit
Lickety split
Twistedcinna@reddit
What about “you make a better door than a window”?
AAHedstrom@reddit
once I said "that's a bummer" with a group who had English as a second language, and they all looked at me like "🤨 that's Obama?"
Honest_Anything_3807@reddit
My ex, who wasn't from the US, always needed a moment after I said "Six of one, a half dozen of the other,".
MyDogSam-15@reddit
I’m American born from an immigrant, ethnic family. I’m now middle age so have been around for a while. I had a coworker who spoke so many of these “phrases” that I never knew what she was talking about. I had to ask her to explain things as it got confusing and annoying. Ironically, her name is Karen.
Purple-Tumbleweed@reddit
Barking up the wrong tree. I was fighting with a house contractor who was from Bulgaria and used that. His response was to say well you can't bark up my tree and I lost it. Then he got even madder when I was laughing too hard to continue the argument.
sunburnlines@reddit
I once had to explain what “drink the koolaid” means to a non-American, and they were horrified.
Ex: “Oh yeah, she went all in on that MLM. Fully drank the koolaid.”
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
Worked with an interpreter in Afghanistan that was originally from Kabul, but fled during the Soviet occupation and became a Canadian citizen. He would translate English books into Uzbek, then from Uzbek into Dari, then from Dari into Pashto, then Pashto back into English in order to compare them with the original text (dude was a linguistics scholar, and one of the most fascinating people I ever had the pleasure of working with).
Anyway, every now and then he'd tap me on the shoulder to show me a word or phrase and ask me to explain it, and I was stunned at how many turns of phrase I knew the meaning for but couldn't put into words. But the best was when he would write up a translation report and use a linguistically correct word but be unaware of what he actually just wrote. He always made sure to run things by the rest of our team before he sent anything up just in case, thankfully, because there were times when he'd have gotten us all fired.
My favorite was when he finished writing up a translation and handed it to me to type up. I read it and almost spit my coffee everywhere. A couple of the other guys looked at it and laughed hard. I had to explain to this 71 year old, highly educated man that while, yes, the word meant "treasure" or "spoils" in his dictionary, I could not send up a report saying that ISIS had raided a supply depot and gotten lots of booty.
MrsPie@reddit
Just ran into one with a coworker from another country: apparently calling "shotgun" for the front passenger seat of a car is very alarming and confusing haha
TurboLicious1855@reddit
Shit faced? I told my Russian professor that I got shit faced at a party and he laughed and laughed.
Autodidact2@reddit
Kick the bucket
Throw in the towel
Make ends meet
Bright_Ices@reddit
Losing my religion (changing my mind)
quietude38@reddit
I had a job where I had to work with a number of colleagues in Europe and India and I had to actively work to avoid baseball metaphors because they're so common in American English and they do not translate at all.
marc4128@reddit
Put a little dirt on it..
Bright_Ices@reddit
Specifically rub a little dirt on it.
MoonieNine@reddit
Calling "shotgun" when you want to ride in the passenger seat. In pioneer days, the passenger held a shotgun in case of attacks. (Indians, bandits, animals)
Warriordance@reddit
"Shit the bed".
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
"It's not my first rodeo" is a little sarcastic in English, so not surprised it comes out sarcastic when translated.
There are lots of phrases used in different regions of the US that don't even translate well to other regions in our own country; sometimes I'm surprised when I use an idiom I've used all my life and my listener has never heard it before. "All 'round Robin Hood's barn" is one such.
Anesthesia222@reddit
My partner is from Kansas and says “Wool-gathering” to mean idly passing the time. I’ve from California and have never heard anyone else say that.
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
Oh, I've known "wool-gathering" all my life - we use it for daydreaming or zoning out (another idiom!), when someone is staring into nothing.
Appropriate-Win3525@reddit
I always took it to mean daydreaming or absentmindedness. I read a lot of classic literature so this one isn't unusual.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
I've heard it, but strikes me as dated.
yeet_chester_tweeto@reddit
I think I remember hearing that wool gathering is something people actually do in places where people keep a lot of sheep? The farmers don't mind if people who are not well off come on to the property to gather the occasional wool bits that come off the sheep. Since wool gathering is not a very (economically) productive use of one's time.
I prefer the Spanish version: Pensando en la inmortalidad del cangrejo.
Which is "Pondering the immortality of the crab."
'No, I wasn't just sitting there wool gathering, I was pondering the immortality of the crab."
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Robin Hood's barn is a favorite of mine!
ChessieChesapeake@reddit
"We drink our own Kool-Aid"
Dampware@reddit
Is that like “eating your own dogfood”?
ChessieChesapeake@reddit
Yes
conbird@reddit
“Let’s table that” means “let’s put it to the side for now and deal with it later” in the US. In some other countries, it means “let’s focus on this right now”. Learned that in a frustrating contract negotiation where both sides thought we were being ignored.
timdtechy612@reddit
This a term used mostly in the blue collar neighborhoods of Chicago, but calling someone a “jagoff”, probably would need interpretation elsewhere around our country and out of it.
Unicoronary@reddit
“Calf slobber” for merengue on a pie, mostly in the South.
bamed@reddit
How we gonna fuck this pig?
Fun_Inspector_8633@reddit
As a former stage crew guy in school you NEVER say good luck to the cast before a show because that’s considered a way to jinx the performance which is why they say break a leg instead.
danhm@reddit
We've got lots of baseball slang and even baseball sexual innuendo. I don't think they talk about getting to second base in Russia or Egypt or Peru.
freebaseclams@reddit
"I got to second pyramid with this chick. She wouldn't let me go inside the tomb though."
dabeeman@reddit
her mummy raised a good girl
bruisevwillis@reddit
Give me some sugar
It doesn't mean "I physically need some granulated white sugar." It means "Give me a kiss." Alternately, when my oldest was a baby, my grandparents had a mini dachshund that loved my daughter. He would try to lick her face, and my grandparents would say, "He's trying to steal her sugar."
Puddin370@reddit
In the military, calling someone a Blue Flacon or saying they deserve the Blue Falcon award is not good. It's the nice way of saying someone is a "buddy fucker". Basically, a selfish person.
brokenyolks@reddit
You're nuts!
merlady94@reddit
I love the video of the German guy talking about "party pooper."
"Jessica is a party pooper? She poops at parties? And peoples know this???”
babyidahopotato@reddit
Eat shit. I have a friend from Russia and she was like what? You eat shit?! LOL
Unicoronary@reddit
“Has an axe to grind/hatchet to bury.”
Puddin370@reddit
The tail wagging the dog meaning things are backwards. Like a parent allowing a minor child to be in control without boundaries or discipline.
Both_Painter_9186@reddit
“Fuck Me”
Basically means “I made a mistake” or “That’s right, I completely forgot”. Definitely wouldn’t translate well.
wwplkyih@reddit
"6 7" is hard for even natives to understand
edwardothegreatest@reddit
Pig in a poke
YogurtclosetFair5742@reddit
"Break a leg" isn't American. First usage of it was in Germany. It means good luck to people about to perform or have an audition.
DennisJay@reddit
"Let's blow this popsicle stand" my dad used to say it and I can't imagine it makes sense outside the US.
B.F.E. is another
yeetskeetleet@reddit
In a similar way to “quid” in England, describing dollars as “bucks” is probably pretty confusing to non Americans
Cold-Call-8374@reddit
I find a lot of gambling metaphors don't translate well if the person doesn't know casino games. I've had to explain what "crapshoot" and "poker face" are to people who aren't from the us.
Ok_Preference6999@reddit
Half a mind.
Im extra southern I guess so I also say got.
"I GOT HALF A MIND TO BE BEAT HER ASS!"
GardenWitchMom@reddit
Well bless your heart, doesn't mean what you think it means.
Thund3rCh1k3n@reddit
If wishes gave wings, bullfrog wouldn't bump their ass when they hop.
Jtownhawk24@reddit
“Just about” only because it means “almost” in the US and “barely” in the UK. I just about shit my pants is two different outcomes!
Ikillwhatieat@reddit
"bless your heart" in southern, = Fuck off.
fraksen@reddit
If you have watched The Amanda Knox story it seems ‘see you later’ is not understood.
NovusMagister@reddit
"it's dead" to refer to something (usually food or drink) as empty, or finished.
Local restaurant, the ladies speak Spanish, so I was filling my coffee from the carafe when it ran out. I told the lady behind the counter "Maté el café" (I killed the coffee) and she looked both confused and horrified that I had done some violence... But to what she wasn't sure because I had said I had killed coffee (not an idiom in Spanish)
Maronita2025@reddit
"It's raining cat's and dog's"
Also foreigners don't understand why we drive on parkways and park on driveways.
jammadoo@reddit
Any idiom shouldn't be translated literally... It's not gonna make sense to anyone else. That goes for idioms specific to any country, not just American.
HalcyonHelvetica@reddit
Just experienced this today: bang for your buck does NOT translate well to non-native/non-US english speakers! I was having such a hard time succinctly explaining what I meant by it.
rantmb331@reddit
imagine you're buying bombs (or fireworks) for dollars... the one that gives you more bang for your buck is the better deal - more of whatever you're buying for the money.
Dampware@reddit
Or even “more of the desired effect for your effort”.
No-Pomegranate3070@reddit
“Throw your hat in the ring”. Meaning to go for it or include yourself in something that is a competition. “I threw my hat in the ring for the supervisor job.” Friend from Vietnam asked for a translation of that.
grey_canvas_@reddit
Shit or git. In other ways: shit or get off the pot
Translate: hurry up or fuck off 😂
Turbulent_Shoe8907@reddit
Some of the best idiomatic phrases get analogues the way “Put the petal to the metal” got the French flavor. “Appuyer sur le champignon” (press on that mushroom) is just fun to say. But sure, we say a lot of crazy stuff here in the states that makes the rest of the world wonder what we put in the water.
lostmindz@reddit
it's not a flower 😂
it's "put the pedal to the metal"
which mean press the fuel pedal to the floor in your vehicle and go fast
bulletproofreader@reddit
“Shit the bed.” I used it talking with a nail tech once, and it was not taken well. An awkward explanation followed.
Froggirl26@reddit
I told someone to "hold on" once, and they looked around for what they were supposed to hold onto
Uuuuugggggghhhhh@reddit
This is good shit, or that is some good shit.
Savings-Wallaby7392@reddit
Full Kimono
Turbowookie79@reddit
I tried to explain “bat shit crazy” to someone in New Zealand one time. To be fair they were obviously an Asian immigrant to NZ but I realized that saying really only makes sense here.
AnitaIvanaMartini@reddit
“Break a leg,” is a weird one for foreigners.
msspider66@reddit
I don’t know how common this was, but we use to say it when I was a teen in the 80s
“Let’s split this taco stand and hit a real pizzeria”
Crazy-Dust550@reddit
"He's more nervous than a bastard at a family reunion "
"She's as nervous as a whore in church"
Texas here
tuxpreacher@reddit
MAGA
theegodmother1999@reddit
"sweatin like a whore in church", "the devils beating his wife" when it's raining, "hold your horses", "pot calling the kettle black", and "too big for your britches" are some of my favs
os2mac@reddit
Drink the Koolaid. it means to follow along and do what your told without question. the problem is most americans don't even understand how dark the origin is.
It comes from Rev. Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre
where the lunatic Rev. convinced his entire congregation to drink a flavored drink mix laced with cyanide.
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Early GenX here...As part of a current events requirement in Social Studies class, we were assigned to read newspapers and watch evening news to discuss. That week was horrific.
There were small children and infants at that compound.
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
Unfortunately it was a recurring theme for awhile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)
213737isPrime@reddit
It morphed into QAnon
213737isPrime@reddit
Not so much do what you're told -- more "uncritically adopt, and even proselytize, a shockingly stupid idea"
Adorable_Bag_2611@reddit
Yeah. A friend of my kid said it and my kid was so excited that a peer knew who JJ was & started babbling and the friend thought my kid was nuts.
This is what happens when someone obsessed with learning about cults has kids.
Cavatappi602@reddit
I can assure you that everyone who hears "break a leg" for the first time thinks it's completely insane.
DargyBear@reddit
Apparently “eating shit.”
I was once flirting with a British girl who also did whitewater. I mentioned how I ate shit and almost drowned on the Pigeon River and didn’t paddle for a couple years because I was too traumatized to roll my boat. She got a really confused look and asked why I ate pigeon shit and what it had to do with kayaking.
AdEastern9303@reddit
Circle jerk and Cluster Fuck. Two similar but slightly different uses. Have fun explaining each relates to the situation they describe.
ActuaLogic@reddit
That dog don't hunt All hat, no cattle
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Trivia: "Break a leg" is a style of superstition where you call out a bad wish because wishes never come true. The first written reference is actually talking about English superstitions --and this one came from horse racing! (According to wikipedia, but I'd read this long ago too.)
It reminds me of how some cultures use warding names for children.
JagR286211@reddit
Can’t manage a fart in a phone booth.
Strong-Library2763@reddit
“I’m swamped” means burdened with commitments or work. I supposed it equated to feeling stuck in muck, like a swamp.
Hardcore_Cal@reddit
Is "Okie Dokie" used outside of the US... or even the midwest?
VanguardAvenger@reddit
"I pled the 5th".when you don't want to anwser a question.
AdventurousTap2171@reddit
You look like you been rode hard and put up wet.
Hotter than a $2 pistol.
That dog won't hunt.
themistycrystal@reddit
Depends on which way the drop falls.
woodwork16@reddit
We can chop a tree down and then chop it up.
jplarson2@reddit
I lived/worked in Germany for two years. Before I was able to speak German well, and my coworkers would ask how my weekend was, I would sometimes say “ Not too exciting, I just ran some errands”.
They told me they had no idea what “running errands” meant and I had to explain. I always found that one interesting and wondered if that was just them or if other Germans would have been equally confused.
snazzynarwhal@reddit
Break a leg isn't actually about the legs on the body. It comes from part of the mechanism used to raise stage curtains in theatres where wooden bars (or 'legs') carried some of the weight of the very large and heavy curtain. The idea was that if you did a really good performance then there would be multiple standing ovations/the applause would go on for so long that the curtain would have to be repeatedly raised and lowered for the cast bows etc. that it would wear out the wooden supports and they would break. Essentially it's 'I hope you do the thing so well and we have to raise and lower the curtain so much to allow for the applause that it breaks the mechanism'.
SomeOldGuy4211@reddit
"English is the only language where a nose can run and feet can smell."
hopopo@reddit
This is a thing in many other countries and languages including Slavic languages that I know.
Franky I'm surprised that fellow Slav don't know about it. Where are you from?
PantsIsDown@reddit
A long time ago I was drinking with a friend from Poland teaching him American drinking games. He told me they were stupid and wanted to go shot for shot with me and I told him no way he could drink me under the table.
He gave me a silly sort of look and then slid out of his chair until he was under the table. Then he said, Okay! Im under the table. Now what??
moonroots64@reddit
"oh it's tea tea tea, that makes me want to pee, on the lawn! On the lawn!"
That probably doesn't make sense to Americans either though...it was a summer camp song from one my mom went to as a kid. I aways found it hilarious.
Donkey-Harlequin@reddit
Less is more.
Defiant-Chemist423@reddit
"He's a straight shooter" when we mean an honest person
Practical-Plenty907@reddit
Honest is part of it but “straight shooter” more means to the point, doesn’t beat around the bush, tells it like they feel it is, in my opinion anyway.
Square_Medicine_9171@reddit
“beat around the bush” is probably another one, haha
HoyAIAG@reddit
Bless their little hearts
Imightbeafanofthis@reddit
"When the cows come home." -- Sometime in the future.
"When pigs fly." -- Never
"Rode hard and put away wet" -- someone with a ragged look. (This comes from horse care, not sexual innuendo, although it is often used that way.)
Feather757@reddit
There's also "Screwed the Pooch", which means someone made a very big mistake.
therealDrPraetorius@reddit
Actors say "Break a Leg" when wishing other actor well because it is bad luck to say "Good Luck". It is also bad luck to refer to the play MacBeth by name, so it is referred to as "The Scottish Play".
This one is probably obvious meaning, but for icey roads or other situations of low friction, I will say "Slicker than snot on a doorknob."
Wishful thinking is Pie In The Sky
Someone who is particularly ugly has been Beaten With An Uglystick.
A problem in your plans is A Fly In The Ointment
Someone particularly naive Just Fell Off The Turnip Truck.
Equivalent-Speed-631@reddit
Shake the sheets and you’ll lose them. Meaning someone is skinny.
Derwin0@reddit
“Break a leg” came about because it was considered bad luck to wish someone well before a performance.
YerbaPanda@reddit
Interestingly, the US English expression “you’re pulling my leg” and the Argentine Spanish “me tomás el pelo” (you’re pulling my hair) are equivalent.
Zephyr_Dragon49@reddit
I don't think screwed the pooch whould go over well abroad
tinniclo@reddit
I would think “liar, liar, pants on fire “ would sound ridiculous in another language
foxyfree@reddit
Well fuck me runnin’
curious_the_cat_@reddit
I've learned that "fanny" has very different meanings on other continents. Explaining what a fanny pack was to my Brit friend was a full sitcom moment.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Theme from The Nanny
BirdmanHuginn@reddit
Calling someone a Benedict Arnold probably doesn’t go very far in other countries. In fairness, considering the state of US education, not sure people even know who he was anymore
Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit
Most sports related phrase (Baseball, Football/Gridiron) should not be understood in Europe, but because of TV, most of the more popular ones are.
PoppysWorkshop@reddit
"Don't be pissing on my boot and tell me it's raining out."
The other is when you say goodbye to someone and mention you will see them again "Lord willing and the creek don't rise"
Current_Poster@reddit
"That doesn't hold water" is tricky.
Cardabella@reddit
American pronounciation of "Khaki pants" sounds like cacky underpants, vs Khaki trousers (pronounced with a long a: khah-ki, almost non-rhotic car key) in most British dialects.
Han-Bao@reddit
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Big-Barracuda-6639@reddit
The whole nine yards. It means giving everything in effort but the saying refers to a WW2 machine gunner firing all nine yards of an ammo belt at the enemy.
sourbirthdayprincess@reddit
My first thought was “in a pickle.”
I think about this topic a lot talking to my friend in Germany, so I may update with more later.
La_croix_addict@reddit
“See you later” doesn’t mean that you will see someone again. It just means “bye”.
mattwan@reddit
A farewell I've never heard outside the small rural community I grew up in is "come and go with us". Well, it was more like a prelude to a farewell, kind of a way of saying "it's time for us to go." Confused the hell out of me as a little kid--we clearly didn't want them to leave with us, so why were we inviting them?
battery19791@reddit
I generally only use that with friends, as I will likely see them again at some point.
chocoheed@reddit
Yaddamean?
Bidesign54@reddit
Quicker’n Grant took Ritchie.
AccidentalSwede@reddit
Ritchie? I always heard it as Richmond.
TywinDeVillena@reddit
Flair checks out
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
I love that.
JohnnyCoolbreeze@reddit
Never heard that one.
Cranberry-Electrical@reddit
Throwing a Hail Mary
Sunshineboy777@reddit
"Don't be ugly / they're being ugly"
"Bless your heart"
"I'm fixin to do that"
If you don't know what these mean, please reply with your best guess.
dcvo1986@reddit
"Screwed the pooch." My wife was like "why are you guys fucking the dog?"
PanickyFool@reddit
Goat rodeo
Usagi_Shinobi@reddit
Wouldn't this be a question for "Ask a non American" then? Most of us are monolingual US English, how would we know what other languages find difficult to translate?
SquirrelBowl@reddit
“Kiss my grits!”
Thanks, Flo
dobrazona@reddit
Saying someone has "their head up their butt".
a11encur1@reddit
To "have your ass handed to you"....it means to be defeated at something or to do really badly at something
To be "slammed with work" just means to be inundated with work
To be "head over heels" about something means to be obsessed about something almost in a nonsensical way (it is a good obsession though- like love).
To be "burned out" means to be drained emotionally/mentally
"Grinds my gears" means when something annoys you
Silly_Somewhere1791@reddit
The movie The Full Monty was “translated” as Five Fat Pigs in other countries.
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
Until the movie "The Full Monty" came out it wasn't a commonly known idiom in American English. It's a UK idiom.
InternalRemote1473@reddit
Well spank my ass and call me cowboy.
AnnieAcely199@reddit
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit.
JohnnyCoolbreeze@reddit
I can imagine that being said in some underground club in Berlin.
continuousBaBa@reddit
Fuck me
CommercialWorried319@reddit
Pot calling the kettle black
Hail Mary (used as last ditch effort)
Put the pin back in for a minute
Sitting around with your thumb up your ass
Medical bankruptcy
Bubba_Gump_Shrimp@reddit
Ah yes my favorite idiom. Crippling medical debt.
jondoughntyaknow@reddit
Bless your heart!
Uhhh_what555476384@reddit
This is glossary of English Language Idioms from the American Sport of Baseball: some of these may make more sense to someone from Korea, Japan, Cuba, Venezeula, etc. then the UK, Ireland, Australia, etc.
Though, some are general enough to translate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_English-language_idioms_derived_from_baseball
Scary-Towel6962@reddit
They seem to love weird induendos like screw the pooch, or talking about being pounded and/or chewed out.
MiserableOptimist1@reddit
Some of my favorites are "Had my asshole chewed out" and "Chewed me a new asshole"
haileyskydiamonds@reddit
I have always heard “ripped ____ a new one.”
rantmb331@reddit
or reamed him a new asshole.
SenorVajay@reddit
I’ve heard “ripped me a new asshole” but not “chewed me a new asshole” lmao
ngshafer@reddit
Oh, yeah, “screw the pooch” doesn’t even make sense to us!
Scary-Towel6962@reddit
Not sure if it's an innuendo I think I read it literally means fucking a dog lol but it's used in pretty normal conversation
DummyThiccDude@reddit
Its usually used when someone makes a mistake. Sort of an alternative to "wow, you really fucked that up"
Scary-Towel6962@reddit
Yes I know, I'm talking about the origins of it
freebaseclams@reddit
It comes from a senator we had in the 1800s (Douglas Dogfucker)
sugarcatgrl@reddit
Laughing all the way to the bank.
Communal-Lipstick@reddit
Waiting on someone hand and foot.
Innuendo64_@reddit
I imagine a ton of baseball related phrases are lost on foreigners not from the Dominican Republic
Lurker-Lurker218@reddit
Baseball is very popular in the Caribbean, they understand many of the references.
neBular_cipHer@reddit
Touch base
Artistic_Skills@reddit
Here's an American song that might interest you: "This Ain't My First Rodeo". It is about a man whose partner denies that anything is wrong, but he is sure that she is planning to leave him, like he sees signs that she is packing bags.
"This ain't my first rodeo / This ain't the first time this old cowboy's been throwed [ as if thrown from horseback] This ain't the first I've seen of this 'dog and pony show' [ a slang term for a rodeo
battery19791@reddit
School shooting.
Succulent_Roses@reddit
Along with the first example, is: "It's not my second rodeo," commonly used in an ironically literal by people who've been to two rodeos previously.
LabInner262@reddit
You are pulling my leg - old, but still confusing to a lot of people.
Weightmonster@reddit
All the baseball idioms…
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.inbar.org/resource/resmgr/2023_wbbr/speaker_materials/baseball_phrases_in_everyday.pdf
Altruistic-Mess9632@reddit
All hat no cattle.
kmoonster@reddit
"Monday morning quarterback" is a common American-ism that would almost certainly fail to translate even in English.
A quarterback is the player on an American-style football team who makes the play-by-play decisions during the game.
Professional games are mostly on Sundays, college teams usually play on Saturday.
So if you go into work after the weekend and complain about how the quarterback should have done a play differently in order to score, win, etc you are a Monday morning quarterback. You are criticizing someone else's decision after the fact and with information that was not available to them in the moment.
This is the saying that generates the most confusion, at least in my opinion.
daringnovelist@reddit
"Break a leg" has two meanings. One is just that people are superstitious in the theater, so you don't want to wish them good luck for fear of jinxing them.
The other is goes back to the assassination of Lincoln. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth was an actor, and supposedly he told people that he would be the most famous actor in the world when he left the stage that night. After he shot Lincoln, he jumped down onto the stage, and broke his leg. Therefore, telling someone to "break a leg" is to wish them to have a great and memorable performance.
ninevah8@reddit
Most people are familiar with Americanisms all over the world due to the mass saturation of American media
HeirophantGreen@reddit
Just cuz you put yer boots in the oven dun't make em biscuits.
Pitiful_Bunch_2290@reddit
I will now be incorporating "neither fluff nor feather" into my vocabulary.
Milos_shka@reddit (OP)
I’m glad to hear this😂
Straight_Cherry996@reddit
Where's the Beef?