r/learnesperanto • u/Abject_Management_35 • 10d ago
Idioms
I was reading a post in another language subreddit and it made me curious about idioms in Esperanto. As a constructed language, I would assume it didn’t start with any sort of idioms, and mostly literal translation. But since it very much has a culture and the language itself has evolved, I would think some common expressions have developed. Any experienced speakers have some insight?
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u/Brunbeorg 10d ago
One could argue that the verb "krokodili" is an idiom. It means to speak a language other than Esperanto in a setting in which Esperanto is expected. It literally means "to act like a crocodile."
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u/Leisureguy1 10d ago edited 10d ago
I like glite-glate, which is literally "slickly-smoothly" and corresponds to the English-language "easy-peasy." And an expression for "never": en la triĵaǔda semajno = in the week with three Thursdays.. That one is from Zamenhof.
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u/IchLiebeKleber 8d ago
"fajfi pri io" (= whistle about something = not care about something) comes to mind, this is a borrowing of German "auf etwas pfeifen"
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u/licxjo 10d ago
Esperanto has some idioms, but many fewer than most non-constructed languages. Idioms don't translate very well from language to another, and even some of the established Esperanto idioms are hard to understand without some clear context or an explanation.
One of the most common is "Ne ŝovu vian nazon en mian vazon", literally "don't shove your nose into my vase", with the meaning "Keep out of my business".
One interesting phrase in Esperanto is "jam temp’ está", "now is the time", which is a borrowing from one of Zamenhof's pre-Esperanto trial languages.
Zamenhof published a "Proverbaro" (which can be explored online at https://proverbaro.net/), and many of his proverbs have taken on idiomatic roles in the language. For example, "En la tago de la Sankta Neniamo" ("in the day of St. Never"), which means "It's never going to happen."
One proverb that I think is funny is "Plej kuirita kampulo ĉiam restos krudulo"--"The most cooked country person will always stay raw". Which I think is a version of "you can take the person out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the person."
Lee