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Idiom : ’Casting pearls before swine’ | ||
Tags: Idiom | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7377 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 22 16 July 2010 at 11:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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What synonyms do you know (in any language) of the expression "Casting pearls before swines", which means to present a worthy thing before people who are not capable of understanding or appreciating it?
For instance: French Donner de la confiture aux cochons. (To give jam to pigs - a colorful and food-centric variation of the original) Edited by administrator on 16 July 2010 at 11:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6769 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 22 16 July 2010 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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FYI, it's "casting pearls before swine." The plural of swine is just swine.
They have a similar expression in Japanese: 猫に小判 "neko-ni koban" — literally, "pennies to a cat". In reference to the comment after this one: naturally, since "pearls before swine" is a biblical reference, it's no surprise the expression would show up in most or all European languages. Edited by Captain Haddock on 16 July 2010 at 12:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5848 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 22 16 July 2010 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
1. In German there is an equivalent: "Perlen vor die Säue werfen" (die Sau = the female pig) 2. And in Dutch it's the same: "Parels voor de zwijnen werpen" (het zwijn = the pig) I'll have a look for a similar idiom in the other Romance languages. :-) 3. Here comes the Italian version: "Gettare le perle ai porci" or the variation: "Dare la biada all'asino" (= Giving the oats to the donkey) 4. And I have found another French version of this idiom in my book: "Jeter les perles aux pourceaux" (le pourceau = old-fashioned expression for "pig") 5. And now Spanish: "Echar margaritas a los puercos" (= Throwing daisies/pearls to the swines) (margarita = the Latin word for "pearl") 6. And there's an Esperanto-version of this idiom: "Jxeti perlojn antaux la porkojn" (= Throwing pearls in front of the swines) Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 16 July 2010 at 2:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7377 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 22 16 July 2010 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks!
Fasulye it's a good idea to place this in the philological room - I forgot about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kary Groupie Canada Joined 6150 days ago 85 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 5 of 22 16 July 2010 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
There are, you noted, variations within a language. A favourite line from La Tortura
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 22 16 July 2010 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Norwegian: Kaste perler for svin. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Asamajinja Pentaglot Newbie Germany Joined 5236 days ago 11 posts - 17 votes Speaks: German*, Japanese, Korean, English, Spanish Studies: Indonesian | Message 7 of 22 26 July 2010 at 2:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Japanese there is also one with a similar meaning, isn't it? or am i mistaken?
馬の耳に念仏 uma no mimi ni nenbutu (a prayer to buddha to the ears of a horse) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6590 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French | Message 8 of 22 30 July 2010 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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The Russian equivalent is "Ме'тать 'бисер 'перед 'свиньями" [mji'tatj 'bisjir 'pjered 'svinjyami].
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