Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation

Almost the exact opposite actually....

Someone always last in line because they procrastinated for too long, and others got in first? As Pawian said, tortoise and hare scenario?

no

now I'm thinking this is more limited that I thought (or dated or regional). I used to hear the term zając often used for what might be called a phony candidate for a position. When rules required there be more than one candidate (and there wasn't) somebody had to be found to be a candidate on paper so the position could be legally filled.

Occasionally the zając might not realize that their candidacy is welcome just for that reason while sometimes a person would step into the role knowing what it was.

Simple. Ram comes with sheep and as we say sheepish in English, we are getting close to ramish(ed).


That`s interesting. Never heard it in this usage.

However, now I have checked zając and in urban slang it means a problem with diarrhea.

miejski.pl/slowo-Zaj%C4%85c

Aha, ok, wouldn't have known that one.


Hmm. Maybe I'm on the wrong tack here, but sheepish and flabbergasted don't mean the same thing, or perhaps everything at this point has gone way over my head!

We all looked at a bare bone like magpies.

Well, of course, I didn`t claim it was a scientifically proven linguistic connection,, I just proposed it as a hypothesis. But still, if we take sheepish as embarassed, there is a little liking to flabbergasted, isn`t there? At least when we look at sb`s countenance at the moment.

Your new one should be modified a little: to look at sth like a magpie at a bare bone.

So that is ' gapić się jak sroka w gnat ' whereas I thought it was ' wszyscy patrzyliśmy jak sroka w gnat '
Ok, thanks for that. Looks like no-one will have a guess though........

Yes, sroka w gnat. Admit you have found it after our conversation about ramish/sheepish? :):)

To look at sth long and in a dull witted way.

Discussions in other threads reminded me of a few lie idioms, e.g, Lie like hired, lie like from music note sheet,,

Lie means not tell the truth.

And before I forget, a splinter from another thread:
climb down onto the dogs.

I have heard your explanation, but also another meaning, to stare in disbelief, as if one could hardly believe one's eyes.


Does it mean to sink as low as you can go? To go to the dogs, as in 'this country's going to the dogs' for example?

I will have to think about the others.


Of course not! :)

No, I didn`t kow that meaning and to make sure, I checked the online dictionary, there isn`t such, staring is only long, stubborn and thoughtless.

wsjp.pl/index.php?id_hasla=10141

Yes, of course, going to the dogs but the Polish one with that climbing down is nicer, I suppose.

Those others are very easy, how can some guys lie in the forum? :):)

A new one: What do you express with that comment?: Pretty flowers!

A new one: What do you express with that comment?: Pretty flowers!
@ pawian

I thing surprise....astonishment

Only a little. Some online dictionaries mention astonishment, but it isn`t the main motive behind it.. Pretty flowers can be exchanged with pretty story or pretty plaster/gypsum.

Awkwardness, annoyance? Is it like a pretty kettle of fish? A difficult situation?

Yes, it expresses disapproval, angered disappointment,. My mum always said it about flowers when I did sth stupid at home. Or when she came back from the meeting with my teachers. :):)

Nah, I bet you were a model student :)

Here is where the buried dog lies.

Same as in German. Only in English, perhaps an appropriate (if neither colloquial nor idiomatic) translation might be "Ah, there's the rub!"

"Aye,....!" to be more precise:-)

Model with grades but loser with behaviour - I did silly things for pure fun.. :)

As for buried dog, yes, Łyzko is right because I don`t need to consult a dictionary to remember that phrase: Hier ist der Hund begraben. Or das? It is used when you have found the solution to a problem.

From Saxon (king) to forest.

"Da liegt der Hund begraben." is the exact translation.

Yes, I was so close. I didn`t learn German as a child for nought. :)

Yes you were. Good for you!
:-)

Yep, well done guys :)

Will have to think a bit longer about the Saxon king idiom.....

@Chemikiem
It's actually a saying and the translation is kind of tricky - as 'forest' in this case refers to a surname @pawian

Thanks Kaprys, but I'm totally stumped by this one!

@Chemikiem
Think about the Polish translation of Saxon as a noun - but the shorter one, the one that rhymes with the Polish word for forest (the word Saxon has two Polish translations)

That would be 'sas' to rhyme with 'las' then, but I'm still none the wiser......unless it's something to do with the meanings of something being close together in context, sort of like the words varying in only one letter. If you can understand what I'm trying to say here that is!

@Chemikiem
You're right about sas and las :)

Now use it with the prepositions from pawian's translation.
It's an interesting saying as it has some historical background.

I'm sure not to get this then! It is the meaning of the saying that is the point of the thread. 'Sas ", I have discovered, is a Central European coat of arms, and it was borne by Polish-Lithuanian noble families, although this probably isn't relevant at all!


Od Sasa do Lasa?


After thinking some more about this, maybe it means that things are going in two completely different directions. If it's not that, I've run out of ideas.

Chemikiem, pawian is misleading you. From Saxon to Las. i.e. From the elected King of Poland August II ( Elector of Saxony, the Wetting dynasty) to King Stanislaw Leszczynski ( In 1725 Stanisław's daughter Marie Leszczyńska married Louis XV of France. ) during the northern war Poland was in turmoil fighting a civil war with some supporting August II and others supporting Stanislaw I.

Here some wiki info:
the provinces of Lorraine and Bar for life.
In Lorraine, Stanisław proved to be a good administrator and promoted economic development. His court at Lunéville became famous as a cultural centre, and he founded an academy of science at Nancy and a military college. In 1749 he published a book entitled Free Voice to Make Freedom Safe, an outline of his proposed changes in the Polish constitution.

Yes!

It seems you have done nice research on it because not many people know that the royal connotations of the idiom are secondary. The original saying od sasa do lasa refered to horses in the carriage: sas meant left or slowly while las meant the gate. One horse went left/slowly while the other to the gate.

I've heard both versions of the etymology of the saying (though my history teachee mentioned just but the previous) but if we're to translate it into English, why mix them?

@Chemikiem
Well done :)