Dave Shepherd welcomes back the North Carolina Nerd, Howard Shepherd, who is home from his travels to Denmark. Dave and Howard respond to several voicemails and emails about ePrime and puns. (1:55)
Howard shares his memories of his trip with his students to Hobro Gymnasium in Denmark. (8:53)
Revisiting our show on Insidious Idioms, we explain our categories of idiomatic distinctions: national, regional, and socio-economic class differences. (11:36)
Music bumper from by “Make Me Understand” by Matt Thorpe (15:07)
International textures: expressing the same idea in different languages, and the perils of mistaken translation (15:43)
Song: “Fill Me In,” by Hollins Steele (21:42)
Rude word of the week: “pot to piss in” (25:41)
Music bumper from “Dancing Cow” by Liquid Floor (27:25)
Variations of idioms by class and region (28:06)
Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network
Theme music by Kick the Cat
time: 36:45
size: 25.3 Mb
rating: PG-13 (We discuss some amusing mis-translations of American idioms, some of which have sexual implications in other countries and languages.)
One of the Spanish idioms I learned in high school was “No hay Moros en la costa.” Literally–”There are no Moors on the coast.” In English, we’d say, “The coast is clear,” for the very reason you mentioned on the show. In Spain, there is hostility toward Moors, while in America, we try to be nice to everybody.
Good show, and good job on the website.
In Book III of Ars Amatoria (Art of Loving), Ovid provides a guide to women to catch a man. One line reads “Ne trux caper iret in alas”, which literally translates as “Do not let the wild Billy-goat run wild in your pit”. The wild Billy-goat is the latin idiom for body odor.
“To bite the bullet” may also come from the biting of a cartridge when loading a musket. The bullet was bitten out of the cartridge, the powder poured into the barrel and the bullet spit after it.
The explanation you give makes more sense though, but wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind. :p
When I was studying in Freiburg, Germany, one clever student I met was fond of translating German idioms literally into English. He particularly amused himself with his English variation of “Das ist mir Wurst.” (It doesn’t matter./I don’t care.) as “That is me sausage.”