Re: USAGE: Inventing gunpowder & idioms

On: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 18:45:56 -0300
FFlores wrote:
=3d---------=3d---------=3d---------=3d---------=3d
>   _descubrir la p=f3lvora (verde)_
>   "to discover (green) gunpowder"
> meaning "to say something that is obvious,
> but looking as if it were a great discovery"
> (this is supposed to be said in an ironic tone).
        Portugese has lots. Off the top of my mind, I can say:

        - Inventar a roda. (To invent the wheel)
          To work hard to make something that had already been done and
          could have been used.

        - Fazer tempestade num copo d'=e1gua. (To make a storm in a glass
          of water)
          To worry excessively about something.

        - Ver chifre em cabe=e7a de cavalo. (To see horns in a horse's
          head)
          To see a problem where there's none.

        - Cutucar a on=e7a com vara curta. (To poke the jaguar with a
          short stick)
          To provoke, to challenge someone that you know is stronger
          (not, in particular, physically) than you.

        Among others.
--
-------- Gustavo Eulalio --------- guga@cgnet.com.br --------
----- "Ima^go estas pli grava ol scio." Albert Einstein -----

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