this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)

For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."

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[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 12 points 8 months ago

In Arabic "Government of Donkeys" is often used to deride especially incompetent governments, and no I don't believe it's meant to translate to "Ass" instead of "Donkey", Ass came to english by way of Rome and Arabic is on the Yunan side of the Greece Yunan linguistic split.

Although if you wanted to zhuzh it up for proper conveyance in english "Confederacy of Asses" gets the point across a lot less clunkily