Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Idiom’s Delight

When I was in Columbus recently, I met a reader that I’ve known for a long time….


For those of you who have been reading the blog for a while, you might recognize her name: .


Trowbridge4-711731


She told me that she really liked the Cealdish idiom that I put into Name of the Wind, “Don’t put a spoon in your eye over it.”


For those of you who don’t know, an idiom is a phrase that means something other than what it means. For example, when you “pull someone’s leg” you’re not *really* pulling their leg...

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Published on June 23, 2013 23:43
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message 1: by Hao (new)
Jun 30, 2013 06:05PM

Hao the chinese have a rhyming type of idiom where you say a phrase that describes the pun of an idea. they usually say the phrase, and then says the idea.

for example: the dog chases the ducks - gua-gua-jiao (they quack)

but the phrase for quacking they used this time also means excellent. so you can say someone's performance is truly like dogs chasing ducks (pause) and then say the punned meaning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiehouyu

i think the two examples given are sufficient to give you a sense of how they work.


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