Re: USAGE: Cool idioms (was Re: Bibliography)

Carlos Thompson <chlewey@...> wrote:

> > I second that!  To all non-native-English-speakers, what other
> > idioms exist in y'all's languages that have that same general meaning?
>
> Let's see what comes fron my mind...
>
>  - Hasta que la marrana ponga.
>  (until the sow lays (an egg))
> but is more common as a command to someone who has been boring you:
> - Vaya a ver si la marrana puso
> (go and look if the sow has laid (an egg)).
Oh! This remembered me of two idioms of the same kind:

- Anda' afuera a ver si llueve.
("Go out to see it if rains" = Go out, you're a bother here.)

- Hasta que las vacas vuelen.
("Until cows fly" [not pigs])

> Reffering to something that has happened a long time ago, there is said it
> happened "en los tiempos de upa" (in the times of upa, and I got no idea
> what upa means)
Funny thing, here in Argentina I've heard "en los tiempos de n~aupa".
These two are surely from the same source, but I still don't have a clue
what (n~a)upa means... A similar one: "en los tiempos de Mari'a Castan~a"
(who the hell was M. C. ??)

> Another lost idiom is "volverse un ocho" (make an eight out of oneself)
> expresing when one becomes complicated in some easy business.
This is a neat one.


--Pablo Flores

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                                             Lily Tomlin