Re: SURVEY: Idiomatic Expressions In Your ConLang Or ConCulture

Hi all,

Thought I'd weigh in with a few more of what I consider
to be English idioms.  I guess I'm using the word "idiom"
to mean any peculiarity of expression; some are dialectal,
while others are fairly widespread across dialect regions.
I expect it will take some long and ingenious thinking to
produce anything comparable to this variety in any of my
conlangs.

20.  Weigh in with ... (Contribute.  I don't know the origin.)

19.  Sweating like a pig.  (Pigs can't sweat, as they have
no sweat glands.)

18. He can't lie straight in bed.

17.  It's coming down in buckets.  (Said of heavy rain.)

16.  Catch a cold, measles or other disease.  (As if the
disease didn't catch us!)

15. Gunna catch me some shut-eye / some Zees.  (Meaning
'I'm going to sleep'; the second variant MUST be North
American, 'cos the rest of us call the 26th letter of the
English alphabet 'Zed'.)

14.  Well, butter me and call me toast! (Expresses surprise.)

13.  Strewth!  (Old Australian oath, meaning 'God's Truth'.)

12.  Strike a light!  (Expresses surprise or amazement.)

11.  Let 'er down, Hughie!  (Encouraging rain.  Hughie, or
Huey, usually pronounced You-ie, is the putative rain god.
He might or might not be the same fella as God with a
capital G.  Usually called on by rural folk.)

10.  Stone the crows!  (Yet Another Expression of Surprise.)

9.  It's only two miles as the crow flies.  (People will always
give you the straight line distance when the only available
track is steep, winding, dangerous and almost impossible to
find ...)

8.  He's six foot tall.  (for 'six feet'.  Occasionally you may
still hear 'two mile' for 'two miles'.)

7.  As bright as a two-bob watch.  (Flashy and cheap;  a
'bob' was a shilling, which in 1966 converted to 10 cents of
a decimal dollar.)

6.  He's not the full two-bob.  (The florin, or two-shilling
piece, was made of high-grade silver.  It was a favourite
target of 'shavers' who took a little silver from the edge
of each coin for later resale.  The person compared to
this shaved two-bob bit was allegedly mentally deficient.)

5.  He's a few sandwiches shy of (or short of) a picnic.
(Another alleged idiot.)

4.  He's got kangaroos in the top paddock.  (This fella's
trouble is that thoughts just bounce around in his head.)

3.  He took the king's shilling.  (He became a soldier.  Also:
'He went for a soldier.')

2.  This weather plays merry hell with my bones.  (An
arthritic's complaint.)

And finally, number 1!  It starts out like this:

'Flat out like a ...'  How does it finish?  Is it?

a)  '... rug',
b)  '... doormat',
c)  '... flying carpet',
d)  '... bowling green', or
e)  '... skating rink'?

No; it's none of the above; it's ...

1.  Flat out like a lizard drinking.

'Go figure!'

Regards,
Yahya

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.3/173 - Release Date: 16/11/05