The meaning of words

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pibbur

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In Norwegian, if someone has made a mistake, and you're reprimanding him/her, we often use the expression "fortelle ham hvor David kjøpte ølet" - which translates directly into English as "tell him where David bought the beer". The origin of the expression is afaik unclear. I wonder: Are any of you familiar with said expression (other Norwegians don't count!)

I find expressions like these interesting, because the meaning can't be derived from syntax and the meaning of the words. Thus they represent problems for translation software.
 
Metaphor is popular here in the States too. I've never heard your phrase but there are a bunch of them we use such as, "you're preaching to the choir", to signify someone who's opinion/viewpoints match your own.
 
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My husband has some I've never heard anywhere else which he uses when he's snarling at someone for parading a useless or wrong bunch of facts(--you have to imagine this dripping with sarcasm): 'yeah, go on and tell us how the cow ate the cabbage." This is often followed by another cabbage reference, "Tell 'em, Cabbage--you've got the head for it." I'm not sure where all the cole family references come from, but they seem heartfelt. ;)
 
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Colloquialisms can be colorful. I remember being somewhat shocked when I heard a friend of mine answer "Oh, nuthin', fucked the dog" when I asked what he'd been up to. Montana thing, I guess. Life on the frontier and all that.

Finnish has lots. I just can't think of any ATM.
 
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Are you sure that was a colloquialism?
 
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That's a joke btw.
 
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Obviously it must be the origin of the more polite "screwed the pooch" saying. :) If it were factual, would've been more likely to concern a farm animal—probably the usual sheep suspects in Montana.
 
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I defer to the honourable lady's statement.
 
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magerette said:
Obviously it must be the origin of the more polite "screwed the pooch" saying. :) If it were factual, would've been more likely to concern a farm animal—probably the usual sheep suspects in Montana.
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I don't know. "Screwed the pooch" implies failure and general ugliness. "Fucked the dog" appears to be fairly vague pleasure. o_O
 
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dteowner said:
I don't know. "Screwed the pooch" implies failure and general ugliness. "Fucked the dog" appears to be fairly vague pleasure. o_O
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Probably not for the dog…but I get your point. The meaning is indeed quite different, strangely enough—but colloquial references to sex are often hard to figure out. Why is something that's completely messed up referred to as all effed up? I mean, effing around kind of denotes a mildly pleasant experience, but effed up is teh bad. And people just don't want to be effed with, except that's half the point of life at certain ages…I'm totally confused now.:p

I know, I know, leave it to the Americans to drag the conversation into the gutter...
 
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Hmmm, how the cow ate the cabbage is locally used to mean telling them like it is. It's kinda like another phrase, laying down the law. You're telling someone facts, whether they like them or not. Some of my southern friends use this phrase quite a bit.
 
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A Saffer bloke I met once said "we're not here to f*** spiders." apparently meaning "we're not here to mess around / get on with it."
I never got around to actually asking him the etymology of that one.

Unfortunately I couldn't fight back and confuse him with "brass monkeys", "Bob's your uncle" or anything as, well, he was a Saffer so pretty much knew most British idioms anyway. Damn Commonwealth, ruining my fun.
 
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