Prof. Sam Lawler1d ago
For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
Show threadThomas Lobig
@sundogplanets Eine Kuh macht Muh, viele Kühe machen Mühe
(hard to translate German pun, roughly "one cow says moo, many cows create mooch work")
Mar 26 at 7:14amWeb
Show threadThomas Lobig1d ago
@sundogplanets one more German one: "Das geht auf keine Kuhhaut" literraly: Doesn't fit on a cow skin, cow skin as in raw material for parchment.
Show threadbenni1d ago
@Tom_ofB @sundogplanets another German one: "Die Kuh vom Eis holen." Moving the cow from the ice. the meaning is to solve a difficult but urgent problem.
Show threadFlorian Schmidt1d ago
@benni
Another German one (we seem to deal with cows a lot): "Du siehst aus wie / du schaust wie *eine Kuh auf Glatteis"
roughly "You look like a cow on black ice" (stressing the slippyness, not the optics)
@Tom_ofB @sundogplanets
Show threadMarc19h ago
@schmidt_fu @benni @Tom_ofB @sundogplanets I only know "schauen wie eine Kuh, wenn es donnert". ("to gaze like a cow when it thunders") Used when somebody looks completely clueless.
Show threadTimjan21h ago

@benni @Tom_ofB @sundogplanets

Interesting!

There's a Swedish that must have had some related origin: "det är ingen ko på isen" = "There's no cow on the ice", as in, there are presently no pressing urgent problems to solve.

Show threadTove Öhman17h ago
@benni @Tom_ofB @sundogplanets oooh, totally the counterpart of the Swedish "Det är ingen ko på isen", there is no cow on the ice! Meaning don't panic (yet)!
Show threadMarcel Waldvogel1d ago

@Tom_ofB @sundogplanets
Wow, excellent translation! Congrats!

(Until a few seconds ago, I would have considered this utterly untranslateable.)

Show threadRemco de Kok1d ago
Udderly untranslateable? I'll see myself out.