command line vs gui 6990

Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz

That's because the idiom itself is a target language-ification of a foreign source-language expression.

For example: "(he has) an axe to grind" is the transliteration of a German phrase: "Acht(ung) Grund" meaning "pay attention-bewarebe aware + reason-basis-grounds". Beweggrund = "motive". This phrase is said when someone has an ulterior motive.

The large majority of English idioms (Type 1) result from the direct transliteration of a foreign phrase into common English words (such as cats, dogs, sacks, bags). The foreign phrase is usually "plain text" (Type 1a) but is sometimes a metaphor (Type 1b).

"Kick the bucket" is probably an example of Type 1b. Using 3 for the Semitic letter aiyin at a time when the aiyin had a velar G-K-sound as in 3aZa = Gaza, Semitic 3aGaV B'3a:DeN means "make (physical) love in Paradise". This euphemism for dying transliterates as KicK BucKeT.

A minority of English idioms (Type 2) are the translation (not transliteration) of a Type 1 idiom in a foreign language. The foreign idiom may be a transliteration of (pun on) a phrase in the same foreign language (Type 2a) or another foreign language (Type 2b).

The most famous Type 2a example may be the idiiom "(escape by) the skin of my teeth". This is a translation of the Hebrew in biblical Job 19:20 where (again giving the aiyin a G-K-sound) Job says: B'3oR SHiNai, literally "by the skin of my teeth". This is a pun on the Hebrew word B'QoSHi, which means "barely, hardly, with difficulty".

An example of Type 2b is "count sheep !" to go to sleep. on the Latin phrase "sopor sond" (sleep soundly-deeply). Compare English soporific, a substance that induces sleep.

For more examples, do a Google search on ciao, Israel "izzy" Cohen