Prof. Sam LawlerFor 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)
Dr. Anna Latour@sundogplanets In Dutch we say "Dat is een waarheid als een koe", which literally translates to "That is a truth like a cow", meaning that it is *very* true. I guess b/c you cannot avoid a cow when it is in front of you.
@sundogplanets We also say "Als het kalf verdronken is, dempt men de put", which translates to "One closes the well after the calf has drowned", meaning that measures to prevent something bad from happening only happen after that bad thing has already happened.
@sundogplanets We also say "Over koetjes and kalfjes praten". Literal translation: "talking about cows and calfs", and it means making small talk.
@sundogplanets There used to be a slogan for firework safety awareness, which was: "Je bent een rund als je met vuurwerk stunt". Literal translation: You are a cow if you do stunts with fireworks.
@sundogplanets probably more but I have a meeting now 😬
@sundogplanets "Je moet geen oude koeien uit de sloot halen," Rough translation: don't rescue an old cow from a ditch.
Basically it means that you should not bring up old grievances in current discussions.
@sundogplanets Another fun one: "Je weet nooit hoe een koe een haas vangt". Literal translation: you never know how a cow might catch a hare. It means that you should never assume that a problem is unsolvable.
@sundogplanets We have a bunch of dairy-related ones also:
"Zich de kaas niet van het brood laten eten." Rough translation: not letting anyone eat the cheese off of their sandwich. Means that you can stand up for yourself and don't let people mess with you or treat you unfairly.
"Er geen kaas van gegeten hebben." Rough translation: [that person] hasn't eaten cheese from there. Meaning that they don't know what they're talking about.
"Huisjesmelker." Literally: house milker. Our word for landlords who exploit tenants by having many bad apartments that they ask too much money for, especially if they themselves don't have a "proper" job.
Similarly "uitmelken" implies milking a cow until nothing is left, with the obvious meaning.
Jaap-Henk Hoepman 🟥 ⬜️ 🟩 ⬛️@anna @sundogplanets Also in the sense of ‘try it, you might be lucky’ (if all normal options are exhausted).