Sayings that you never understood or misinterpreted growing

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IstominFan
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30 Apr 2017, 3:29 pm

Any of those "X is the new Y" type sayings (e.g. "50 is the new 30"). Stupid and wrong! Your age is what it is-make the best of your life now.



Kiriae
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30 Apr 2017, 4:12 pm

"Co ma piernik do wiatraka"?(What does gingerbread have in common with windmill?)
Actual meaning: What you just said is irrelevant to what we were talking about.
My understanding: Windmill is used to make flour, flour is used to make gingerbread.

"Do wesela się zagoi." (It will heal till the wedding day.)
Actual meaning: It will heal fast so there is nothing to cry for.
My understanding: I guess thats important. Girls shouldn't have any wounds on their wedding day, right? I am lucky I am still a child. My wedding will be in at least 10 years so the wound will surely heal by then. But I have to be careful when I am older.

"Gdy kota nie ma, myszy harcują." (When cat is not there, mouses gambol.)
Actual meaning: When supervisor is not there, noone respects the rules.
My understanding: Imagining mouses running and jumping all around the house and having a party. Then hiding as soon as a cat comes. Sort of like in Tom and Jerry cartoon.

"Kogut myślał o niedzieli, a w sobotę łeb odcięli." (Rooster was thinking about Sunday, but on Saturday they cut his head off.)
Actual meaning: Focus on the nearest future. Don't make plans that go to far.
My understanding: Poor rooster, cruel people(sees the process of someone cutting roosters head off, lots of blood etc). Well, I guess the people just had different Sunday plans for the rooster - they wanted it cooked. Hmm, come to think of it. Maybe the rooster knew he was going to get killed and that's why he was thinking about Sunday? Was he afraid? Did he knew he will be dead by then?

"Gdy się człowiek spieszy, to się diabeł cieszy" (When man is in a hurry, Devil is happy)
Actual meaning: When you are in a hurry you miss details and make mistakes.
My understanding: When people hurry, they drive too fast, cause accidents, die and go to hell and this is what Devil is waiting for.



NewTime
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30 Apr 2017, 4:36 pm

"a taste of your own medicine"

Just why would you be tasting someone else's medicine?



nick007
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01 May 2017, 12:26 am

"You can have your cake & eat it to too" What's the point in having the cake if your not going to eat it
"You made your bed now lie in it" Why would you want to lie in an unmade bed


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01 May 2017, 3:13 am

"You've made your bed, now lie in it" is another one that has confused me. If the bed has been made, you can't lay in it unless you un-make it first. Whenever I hear it, I think of someone trying to get back into it without pulling any of the blankets down so it can stay made while they lay in it.


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Kiriae
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01 May 2017, 6:36 am

Polish version of "You made your bed now lie in it" makes more sense for me: "Jak sobie pościelisz tak się wyśpisz" (How you make your bed[=put your beddings], so rested you will be when you wake up).
It might be difficult to sleep in a uncomfortable bed with messy beddings and you would wake up all tired and hurting, right? And even when one actually likes sleeping in messy bed it still makes sense: you always make your bed the way YOU are comfortable so it can be messy if it's comfortable, who cares? And if you make the bed in a way you don't find comfortable you are the one at fault, unless it is something you can't help.



IstominFan
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01 May 2017, 9:22 am

The way I see it, "You made your bed, now lie in it," means you set in motion the events that led to your trouble, and now you must pay the consequences."



Kiriae
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01 May 2017, 2:34 pm

IstominFan wrote:
The way I see it, "You made your bed, now lie in it," means you set in motion the events that led to your trouble, and now you must pay the consequences."

Add an "if" to it and you get the Polish meaning ("if you set in motion the events that led to your trouble, you must pay the consequences." because "if you made the bed badly, you won't be well rested next morning"). Noone uses that saying when anything good comes, I am probably the only one seeing the possible positive explanation bacause I care enough to interpret the sayings and wonder where it comes from and what sense it makes, not just remember the meaning.

BTW. We have a similar one "Nawarzyłeś piwa więc teraz je wypij"(You made a lot of beer, so drink it now), meaning the same thing: your actions have (bad) consequences so now you have to deal with them. (My understanding - I don't make or drink beer but when I was practicing cooking I often cooked too much stuff noone wanted to eat so I had to eat it in order not to waste food - it's just like this. I could always throw it out though if it was really bad, so who cares? Also - probably someone liking beer would be happy drinking all the beer but I guess there is an amount of beer noone is able to drink before it goes bad even if they love it.)



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01 May 2017, 3:36 pm

Irulan wrote:
It means you should beat your kid if they only deserve, because otherwise you will raise a spoiled child not being afraid of punishment.

I realize this was posted four years ago, and that this person is doesnt even post on WP anymore, but that is NOT what the saying means.

"Spare the rod, and spoil the child" means that you DO beat your kid with a rod so they dont become spoiled, as opposed not beating your kid at all (which will supposedly cause the kid to become spoiled). NOT what you're saying-which is that "you should beat your kid only a certain amount, but not too much".



naturalplastic
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01 May 2017, 3:40 pm

NewTime wrote:
"a taste of your own medicine"

Just why would you be tasting someone else's medicine?


I think of it as "you' being a pharmacist, or a doctor dispensing medicine.



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02 May 2017, 9:45 am

A lot of medicine tastes bad, so if you do something to a person to show how it feels when they were doing the same thing to you, it's like getting a taste of their own medicine.

Maybe a long time ago a patient refused to take their medicine because it tasted awful, and the doctor or nurse said "Come on, it can't be that bad!" and then the patient said "Then let's see how YOU like it!" as they forced a spoonful into their mouth. The medicine giver then muttered "Mm yummy...", with castor oil or whatever dribbling from their mouth, and the patient shouted "LIAR!!" And that's where the saying came from. :lol:



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13 May 2017, 6:44 pm

happymusic wrote:
That's what I thought it meant....?

Raining cats and dogs makes a literal image in my mind. I always thought it must be like those stories people tell of frogs and fish falling from the sky. Silly, I know, but still.

Image

like this? i SO need this fabric though


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IstominFan
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14 May 2017, 9:48 am

I like that! If that were a fabric pattern, it would make a really cute pair of pajamas!



IdahoRose
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14 May 2017, 5:02 pm

My mom used to tell me that oatmeal "sticks to your ribs". It means "makes you full" but I took it literally and pictured oatmeal dripping down my rib cage.



lostonearth35
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14 May 2017, 5:15 pm

Today on Mother's Day I asked my parents about that saying "a taste of your own medicine". Mom looked it up on her phone, and said it comes from an Aesop fable where a man, who was a swindler, was selling fake medicine to people claiming it would cure anything. Then the man became ill himself, and people tried to cure him by giving him the same medicine, which he knew would not work.

I've read quite a few Aesop fables but I don't think I've even heard of that one before. Seems the ones with talking animals are the most well-known. :chin:



naturalplastic
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14 May 2017, 5:42 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
Today on Mother's Day I asked my parents about that saying "a taste of your own medicine". Mom looked it up on her phone, and said it comes from an Aesop fable where a man, who was a swindler, was selling fake medicine to people claiming it would cure anything. Then the man became ill himself, and people tried to cure him by giving him the same medicine, which he knew would not work.

I've read quite a few Aesop fables but I don't think I've even heard of that one before. Seems the ones with talking animals are the most well-known. :chin:


Interesting. That makes sense.
And you're right. Most of the Aesop's fables are populated by animal characters.

We get other sayings from Aesop like "he had a sour grapes attitude".