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Death euphemisms in different languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5052 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 1 of 28 22 June 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged |
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thread: Euphemisms like "kick the bucket" for death in other languages?
It may seem morbid of me, but I think some of them are funny. This German one if my favorite: Die Radieschen von unten angucken - to watch the radish from below. A better life in the netherworld indeed... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5730 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 2 of 28 22 June 2012 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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I remember a long time ago, someone made a similar thread, although I couldn't find it. They said they were inspired by Monty Python's dead parrot sketch.
One English expression I heard about a year ago was circling the drain. My instructor said it's usually used by medical personnel. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6660 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 3 of 28 22 June 2012 at 1:47am | IP Logged |
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att gå hädan - to go hence
att trilla av pinn' - to fall of th' perch att kasta in handuken - to trow in the towel att somna in - to fall asleep att kola vippen - unstanslateable Bah, most of these are quite boring :/... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Umin Triglot Newbie Germany despairedreading.worRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4548 days ago 37 posts - 52 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Japanese Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 28 22 June 2012 at 3:24am | IP Logged |
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German:
ins Gras beißen - to bite grass das Zeitliche segnen - to bless your times (not sure if it's even possible to translate that one) in die ewigen Jagdgründe eingehen - to go to the happy hunting grounds über den Jordan gehen - to surpass Jordan (also used with other rivers, mostly the Wupper) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 28 22 June 2012 at 3:39am | IP Logged |
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I always liked "push up daisies". There's "six feet under", "become worm food", "the big
sleep", "take a dirt nap"... the list goes on. These are all for physical burial, though. I don't know of any relating to cremation. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4778 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 28 22 June 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged |
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French: Manger les pissenlits par la racine. (Lit. to eat dandelions by the root.)
Casser sa pipe. (To break one's pipe.) S'éteindre. (To be extinguished.) Two in English I like are "to kick the bucket" and "to buy the farm." Edited by lecavaleur on 22 June 2012 at 7:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5729 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 28 22 June 2012 at 8:46am | IP Logged |
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In Polish
Wąchać kwiatki od spodu - to smell the flowers from below Kopnąć w kalendarz - to kick the calendar Wyciągnąć nogi - to spread out your legs 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 8 of 28 22 June 2012 at 11:54am | IP Logged |
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Japanese, unsurprisingly given Japanese people's love of indirectness, has lots of these. Two I can think of
offhand are 帰らぬ人となる (kaeranu bito to naru), which means "Become a person who will not return", and この世を去る (kono yo wo saru), which means "Leave this world". 1 person has voted this message useful |
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