Very cute video, but now do one where you fill in Nonna’s sayings from her language and background! (And then explain it to us)
Heh.
Now just a day back we’ve entered a 10 day calendar period of palindromic dates — 5/20/25 through 5/29/25.
My Thai sister-in-law, when she heard someone say, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” said, “That doesn’t make any sense!” And it doesn’t!
When I taught English as a Second Language (ESL), idioms were my favorite thing to keep things light and fun. I remember a party hosted by one of my Russian students, attended by my students from around the world, where they were all teaching me idioms from their language. This was after a lot of vodka and all of us were laughing as hard as one can laugh. It was great, and I don’t remember a single one because they were all so crazy/random/wrong that I couldn’t even make a connection to get them into my memory banks. They made no sense!
Judging by the progress on Telsa’s “Optimus” humanoid robot, I think we’re 5 to 10 years away from having domestic robots that can do dishes, laundry, clean & vacuum, as well as all sorts of household tasks fairly well. Hopefully these things will be reasonably affordable.
There’s an old, probably apocryphal, story about early computer translators. The test was to feed a phrase from English, translate it to the other language, and then translate that back into English. Supposedly the phrase “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” came back (via Russian) as “The vodka is ok, but the meat is rotten.”
he’s supposed to be the respectable one after Zuma, but his East bloc training still lingers,
• The discussion about prostate cancer – postings & comments – has been very informative.
• Genuinely surprised by how many commentors have had prostate cancer.
• Was wondering if those who have had prostate cancer – and no family history – would be willing to share how they became aware that they had prostate cancer (i.e., physicals, symptoms, testing, diagnosis process, etc.). Thank you.
Jack Zipes, a modern translator of Grimms’ Household Tales (and a very good one indeed!), explained, in one of his introductions, the difficulty of choosing whether to translate idioms literally, or to substitute an English one with the same general meaning.
For instance, the German phrase used in one Tale is “raining blue beans,” which would mean nothing to English-speaking readers (and it’s doubtful many Germans know why they use it).
I’ve seen many attempts to find an explanation from the past for why a phrase becomes popular, but ultimately everyone is just guessing.
One proverb, “he’s lost his marbles” — now referring to a lack of mental competency — seems to have a plausible origin.
Except the etymologists can’t decide which one.
To lose one’s marbles means to go insane, to take leave on one’s wits, to lose one’s mind. The term lose one’s marbles has undergone an evolution in meaning. At one time, to lose one’s marbles meant to become angry. The idiom to lose one’s marbles has a rather convoluted origin. At one time, marbles was a slang term for furniture, a misrepresentation of the French word for furniture, meubles. At the same time, the human mind was envisioned as a place full of unused clutter, including “mind-furniture”. The two became conflated.
The phrase likely started in the U.S. around the late 1800s. Back then, marbles were more than toys; they were valued treasures and collections. It was first used in writing around 1876 but was probably talked about much earlier. The timing and the importance of marbles show how American speak evolved then.
Theories Behind the Phrase’s Evolution
Brain Fluid Theory: This idea says the phrase comes from old medical beliefs about mental health and brain fluids. Marbles were seen as these essential brain substances. So, to “lose your marbles” meant losing mental balance.
Game Loss Theory: Another idea links to playing marbles, where players might actually lose their marbles. The phrase then came to mean a total loss, whether in thought or strategy.
Glass Marbles Theory: A third idea suggests that people thought insane individuals had glass marbles in their brains. Losing these “marbles” could mean becoming insane.
These theories show how language and historical etymology mix, revealing deeper beliefs and the unique creation of idioms.
t has been suggested that the ‘losing one’s mind’ meaning derives from the Elgin Marbles. These are the collection of sculptures, some from the Parthenon Frieze, which were taken from Athens by Lord Elgin in 1806. The supposition is that the expression derives from the loss of the artworks by the Greeks, or their subsequent loss at sea when the ship that was transporting them sank. An interesting theory, but no more than that; there’s no evidence to support the idea.
From “mad as a wet hen” to “corn dodger” and “hobgoblin,” Charles Funk’s collections of curious words and expressions are a treasure trove of word origin.
Where did expressions like this come from anyway? Now finally we’ll know what “letting the cat out of the bag” or “going on wild-goose chase” refers to. In this fun collection of over 400 curious expressions and sayings, Dr. Funk explains the meanings that we use in everyday speech without even thinking about it. He has traced them back through the years-in some cases centuries-in an effort to determine their sources, to find out what the original allusions were, or, at the very least, to give us his expert opinion when facts cannot be traced.
Alas, according to my copy, Funk does not include the contested idiom.
Perhaps he lost his marbles.
This story is full-on nuts. Israel’s leftist legal powers are tyrannical crazies, possibly worse than the lawfaring kooks running amok in the US today.
sdferr:
No surprise there. They are indeed tyrannical leftist crazies.
AesopFan, was Funk in a funk when he left that one out?
sdferr, neat! I’ll have to employ that as a Fun Fact at work!
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What the hell happened to Spring?
Very cute video, but now do one where you fill in Nonna’s sayings from her language and background! (And then explain it to us)
Heh.
Now just a day back we’ve entered a 10 day calendar period of palindromic dates — 5/20/25 through 5/29/25.
My Thai sister-in-law, when she heard someone say, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” said, “That doesn’t make any sense!” And it doesn’t!
When I taught English as a Second Language (ESL), idioms were my favorite thing to keep things light and fun. I remember a party hosted by one of my Russian students, attended by my students from around the world, where they were all teaching me idioms from their language. This was after a lot of vodka and all of us were laughing as hard as one can laugh. It was great, and I don’t remember a single one because they were all so crazy/random/wrong that I couldn’t even make a connection to get them into my memory banks. They made no sense!
Judging by the progress on Telsa’s “Optimus” humanoid robot, I think we’re 5 to 10 years away from having domestic robots that can do dishes, laundry, clean & vacuum, as well as all sorts of household tasks fairly well. Hopefully these things will be reasonably affordable.
There’s an old, probably apocryphal, story about early computer translators. The test was to feed a phrase from English, translate it to the other language, and then translate that back into English. Supposedly the phrase “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” came back (via Russian) as “The vodka is ok, but the meat is rotten.”
ah Cyril old chap, checkmate
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1925231386790642028
he’s supposed to be the respectable one after Zuma, but his East bloc training still lingers,
• The discussion about prostate cancer – postings & comments – has been very informative.
• Genuinely surprised by how many commentors have had prostate cancer.
• Was wondering if those who have had prostate cancer – and no family history – would be willing to share how they became aware that they had prostate cancer (i.e., physicals, symptoms, testing, diagnosis process, etc.). Thank you.
https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2025/05/21/trump-humiliates-nbc-news-reporter-during-white-house-exchange-he-unwisely-came-back-for-more-n2189396
Jack Zipes, a modern translator of Grimms’ Household Tales (and a very good one indeed!), explained, in one of his introductions, the difficulty of choosing whether to translate idioms literally, or to substitute an English one with the same general meaning.
For instance, the German phrase used in one Tale is “raining blue beans,” which would mean nothing to English-speaking readers (and it’s doubtful many Germans know why they use it).
I’ve seen many attempts to find an explanation from the past for why a phrase becomes popular, but ultimately everyone is just guessing.
One proverb, “he’s lost his marbles” — now referring to a lack of mental competency — seems to have a plausible origin.
Except the etymologists can’t decide which one.
https://grammarist.com/idiom/lose-ones-marbles/
https://twominenglish.com/lose-your-marbles/
One post mentions all those, and my personal favorite.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/lose-your-marbles.html
If the subject in general intrigues you, as it does me, try this book by Charles Funk:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/689892.A_Hog_on_Ice_and_Other_Curious_Expressions
Alas, according to my copy, Funk does not include the contested idiom.
Perhaps he lost his marbles.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-rules-shin-bet-heads-dismissal-unlawful-pm-had-conflict-of-interest/
This story is full-on nuts. Israel’s leftist legal powers are tyrannical crazies, possibly worse than the lawfaring kooks running amok in the US today.
sdferr:
No surprise there. They are indeed tyrannical leftist crazies.
AesopFan, was Funk in a funk when he left that one out?
sdferr, neat! I’ll have to employ that as a Fun Fact at work!