Re: Common World Idioms

OFFLIST-blocked- 5 message limit :)

--- Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:

>Idioms just are very puzzling to me, and I greatly
>dislike them. 'Up in the air' is one example. Does it
>mean 'unnecessary', 'incomprehensible', 'maybe', or
>what?
"Up in the air" - excellent. In English it means "in a
state of incompleteness" - "yet undetermined" with a
factor of "impossible to predict" added to it. So,
something "up in the air" is going to come down at
some point, but its uncertain where.

Also, being in the air, when something is usually not
--i.e. "on the ground" ("well-grounded"-idiom!)
implies a "un-groundedness" - a floaty factor, which
contradicts the powerful force of gravity, which
generally tells things what to do. Excellent example.

>(I had to ask the writer for an explanation for that
>one.) I'm a native English speaker, but I still don't
>understand many of the idiomatic expressions that it
>employs for daily life... :))
I think you understand them - perhaps not in a literal
way, but you can still use them.

-SC :)


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