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[Readings]

An Idiom Abroad

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From a series of lists compiled in Euphemisms That Get on My You-Know-Whats, which was published in November by Andrews McMeel Publishing.

raining cats and dogs
Raining old ladies and sticks (Wales)
Raining chair legs (Greece)
Raining wheelbarrows (Czech Republic)

wishes of ill fortune
May a goose kick you (Poland)
May your VCR catch fire (Greece)
May your mother-in-law’s curry get burnt (India)

pot calling the kettle black
Owl calling the sparrow big-headed (Hungary)
Hospital mocking charity (France)
Mucus laughing at nose dirt (Japan)

when pigs fly
When tractors fall (Slovakia)
When cats grow horns (Indonesia)
When 7-Eleven closes (Thailand)

a fish out of water
A Dane on skis (Norway)
A cockroach at a chicken dance (Venezuela)
An octopus in a garage (Spain)

i don’t care
It bothers me like a cardboard duck (Denmark)
I don’t give a cabbage (Italy)
It’s sausage to me (Germany)

mind your own business
Deal with your own onions (France)
Not your pigs, not your beans (Lithuania)
Who gave you a candle for this vigil? (Spain)

dying
Putting your clogs aside (Denmark)
Throwing out your best skates (Russia)


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May 2022

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