#idiom — Public Fediverse posts

@eclectech

So you want an idiomatic translation rather than a literal one. Makes sense.

I love when people fluent in another language explain an idiom from that language in English. Something like you ask "What's the <language> equivalent of `he couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel`?" and they tell you it's <...> which translates as "His grandmother hid his fish behind the outhouse door" or something like that 😆

#idiom #language

The PImpl idiom and the C++26 std:indirect type

https://mariusbancila.ro/blog/2026/07/23/the-pimpl-idiom-and-the-cpp26-stdindirect-type/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49032095

#HackerNews #PImpl #Idiom #C++26 #stdIndirect #Type #Programming #Concepts #Software #Development

It just occurred to me that the #English #FigureOfSpeech ‘You can’t have the cake and eat it too’ is silly. It should be ‘You can’t eat the cake and still have it’ or something like it.

I wanted to know if there’s a reason for the ‘reverted’ #idiom and looked up its origin. And, lo and behold, the Wikipedia says, ‘my’ version ‘used to be the most common form of the #expression until the 1930s–1940s, when it was overtaken by the have-eat variant.’

Huh. The more you know.

#randomFact #language

#idiom : a group of words with a non-literal meaning

- German: die Redewendung

- Italian: espressione idiomatica

- Portuguese: idioma

- Spanish: modismo

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Word of The Hour's Annual Survey @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/form

Sometimes the English language irritates the bejeesus out of me. But other times I have so much fun with its rich collection of colourful idioms (like '... the bejeesus out of ...')!

I just told someone I have too many irons in the fire (busy with too many things). I'm constantly telling people that I don't like to 'blow my own trumpet' (praise my own work), or as a more historically recent example, that an extreme approach to a situation is 'the nuclear option'.

#languages #idiom #English

It's my understanding that there's a secretly powerful Russian swear word (or phrase) that translates roughly into "Hello, F-word" but is used as specific recognition of events that are only possible in a dark and arbitrary universe.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

#Idiom #Language #Russian

#idiom : an expression conforming or appropriate to the peculiar structural form of a language

- German: die Redewendung

- Italian: espressione idiomatica

- Portuguese: idioma

- Spanish: modismo

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Try Christian's word chain building game @ https://wordwallgame.com

The #idiom “to kill two #birds with one stone” means accomplishing two things with a single action or with a lesser effort than normally we need. This expression exists in other languages with a rich variety of different #animals: #rabbits and #hares, #flies, #pigeons, and #sparrows. They are either hunted or killed. In some languages, however, there is no explicit reference to any animal (green color).

https://mapologies.com/two-birds-one-stone/

Oh my

#meme #memes #shitpost #tide #saying #idiom #pun #lol #detergent #laundry #joke

You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague – Smithsonian Magazine

Trending Today

You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague

Officials are managing an influx of tourists coming to see “Idiom,” a seemingly infinite tunnel of books by the artist Matej Krén, at the Municipal Library

By Christian Thorsberg, Correspondent January 16, 2026

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Nearly 30 years after a dizzying sculpture fashioned from books was first installed at the Prague Municipal Library in the Czech Republic, literature lovers on TikTok and Instagram have turned the artwork into a viral fascination and unexpected tourism hotspot.

Idiom, created by Slovak artist Matej Krén, features roughly 8,000 books stacked into a tower. Mirrors placed on the top and bottom give the illusion of infinite length, and a raindrop-shaped entryway invites visitors to peek inside the wormhole—almost like they’re literally disappearing into a good book.

“The Idiom is meant to symbolize the infinity of knowledge,” according to a description of the sculpture on the library’s website. “[Books] are like bricks to [Krén], but they contain much more information, destinies, stories and knowledge. He puts them into the form of dwellings: primitive on the one hand, infinitely intelligent on the other.”

The installation made its debut at the Sao Paulo International Biennial in 1995, and in 1996 it was brought to Prague. It was first exhibited for a summer at the Jiri Svestka Gallery, which in the 1950s was a communist warehouse of banned books, before moving to its permanent home at the library in 1998.

For years, Idiom stood as little more than a familiar fixture, with its fame generally limited to the regular library-goers in the Czech capital. But beginning in 2022, the sculpture gained renown by going viral on BookTok, the pocket of TikTok dedicated to discussions of books and writing. Algorithms on Instagram similarly pushed the sculpture to the forefront of feeds.

“Kids that were in Prague looking into their phones suddenly saw a cool thing that they liked and they wanted to see it as well,” Czech journalist Janek Rubeš told Radio Prague International in 2023. “And as it is in today’s world, everyone wants to have the same picture or same video, because it looks cool and they can get likes.”

Quick fact: Idiom on the cover of Science

A photo of the sculpture was featured on the magazine’s cover in January 2011.In that issue, researchers analyzed a massive collection of 5.2million books to study cultural trends.

Today, librarians and local tourism officials are bewildered at the foot traffic the sculpture generates. During peak travel seasons—such as Christmas and Easter—more than 1,000 people each day endure wait times of more than two hours to snap a photograph.

“We’ll have to deal with it in some way, because working with tourist crowds is a completely different service from that we have provided up to now,” Lenka Hanzlikova, a spokesperson for the library, tells Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Most readers laugh about it and say it’s bizarre, but we have had people who wanted to return books and joined the queue.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague

"Bleeding in front of a shark" is a great metaphor, tho-- be careful who you trust

#meme #memes #shitpost #blackmetal #metaphor #idiom

Huh.
Just noticed:
»velvet glove« is a case of people using only half of an idiom nowadays, and also the full English idiom being the opposite of the (short) German one.
So, »iron fist in a velvet glove« is about hidden strength.
German »mit Samthandschuhen anfassen« is the equivalent of »treat with kid gloves«.

(Used in AI Agent, AI Spy)

#39c3 #English #Idiom #German #Language

https://johntinker.substack.com/p/checking-out-two-ideas-regarding #linguistics #NLP #AI #grammar #idiom

“Buy once, cry once” #polls #poll #idiom

#idiom #SaltoftheEarth

Quote: "Be the Salt of the Earth
Meaning: To be a person of great integrity and character.

In a Sentence: “In the community, Mrs. Thompson is considered the salt of the earth, always ready to lend a helping hand.”"

https://phrasedictionary.org/idioms-for-kindness/

Dont be plastic be salt xD

I love good turn of phrase, I'm kind of an #idiom junkie.
I just heard "Dropping his bundle"
I can't wait to use that.

Det här går inte.
Vi måste slå kallt vatten i blodet.

Va!? Vad menas? Är det ett danskt talesätt eller är jag helt obildad

#idiom #talesätt #danska #legenden #netflix

@65dBnoise

#gathersnomoss
#idiom
:coolmsn:

Punt reception is “muffed”, and Fowler calmly described the player “diving” on it.

This happened.

Right before segueing into Holly Rowe the sideline reporter.

I seent and heard it.

With my own eyes and ears.

#CollegeFootball #culture #idiom #football #commentary #socialmedia