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Death euphemisms in different languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4657 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes  Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 17 of 28 30 August 2012 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Brazilian Portuguese:
Bater as botas (''beat the boots'') Abotoar /fechar o paletó (''button the jacket up'') 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7004 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 28 30 August 2012 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
Estirar la pata = Stretch your leg Pasar a mejor vida = Move on to a better life Criar malvas = Grow daisies In Gibraltar, we also use: Quedarse tieso = Become stiff Quedarse en su sitio = To remain in your place I don't know how common they are in other Spanish-speaking places. Edited by patuco on 30 August 2012 at 10:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4817 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 19 of 28 30 August 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I found another German one recently:
"Den Loffel abgeben" - to hand in the spoon, or figuratively "to kick the bucket" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4646 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 20 of 28 30 August 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Czech, there are:
"the stretching idioms" - natáhnout brka (stretch out ones quills / feathers), natáhnout bačkory / papuče (stretch out the slippers) "the shaking idiom" -zaklepat bačkorama (pop one's clogs) "the going idioms" - jít pod drn (go under sod ) / pod kytičky -(under the flowers) "the went away to idioms" - odešel k pánu (went to the Lord), odešel na věčnost (went into the ethernity), odešel do věčných lovišť (went into the happy hunting grounds), na pravdu boží (went to the Lord's truth) and the classic odešel na pravdu Leninovu (went to the Lenin's truth) then, the "smelling and snuffing idioms" - čichat k fialkám zespoda (smelling the violets from below) and čuchat hlínu (snuffing the dirt) similar - prdět do hlíny (farting into the dirt) And finally, there is the "death of the artifical intelligence" for robots and calculators and laptops, less often for PCs - odešel do křemíkového nebe (went away into silicon heaven). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6586 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 21 of 28 30 August 2012 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't like this subject so my favourite one is the simple Polish way: nie żyje - meaning that he/she is "not alive".
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4646 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 22 of 28 30 August 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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OK, one more Czech euphemism:
vzala ho zubatá - the teethy one has taken him (Grim Reaper) Edited by Majka on 30 August 2012 at 7:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4817 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 23 of 28 30 August 2012 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting that someone brought up its use in the robot / computer sphere, which
reminds me (painfully actually) that we talk about hard disks dying (or having a "head crash". Back when I was starting in the world of computers, we'd often talk about computer programs (or jobs in a batch environment) "falling over", or even the operating system or the computer itself "falling over". That was a kind of euphemism. "crash(ed)" was an alternative. In the IBM mainframe world, programs or jobs could "abend" (abnormally end), optionally with a (core or memory) "dump". British English in those days didn't know about the rather indelicate American connotation attached to the word "dump", and I smile now as I think of all those well-brought up English girls saying that a job was "taking a dump", not realising what it could also mean. :-) (The world has changed though, and young girls now probably use language that would make a Billingsgate porter blush without a second thought). Other phrases that might have been used or used now might be "gone belly up" (or "tits up"). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RG Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4867 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, EnglishC1 Studies: Mandarin, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 24 of 28 01 September 2012 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm not saying we don't say it, but I never heard "abotoar/fechar o paleto". Some more from Brazilian Portuguese: "Ir desta para melhor": depart from this to a better one "Dar/exalar o último suspiro": give/exhale the last breath "Dormir o sono eterno": to sleep the forever sleep "Descançar em paz": to rest in peace "Empacotar": "to pack" 1 person has voted this message useful |
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