| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le macadam (goudronné) | tarmac | tarmac | makadam |
| goudronner | to tarmac/asphalt | tarmacio; coltario | koultronañ |
| les bons et les méchants | goodies and baddies | dynion da a dynion drwg | an tud vat hag an tud fall |
| un sachet de petits cadeaux | a little bag of goodies | bag bach o dda-da | |
| [petit sac pour emporter les restes après un repas au restaurant] | doggie/doggy bag | bag sborion | |
| clair comme de l’encre | as clear as mud | annealladwy; fel tatws llaeth | |
| clair comme le cristal / comme de l’eau de roche | as clear as day/crystal | mor olau a’r dydd; clir fel grisial | |
| le champ de foire | fairground | cae ffair | marc’hallac’h |
| le typhon; l’ouragan | typhoon | gyrwynt; corwynt; teiffŵn | tifon |
| la monnaie; la devise | currency | arian (treigl/cyfredol) | moneiz; teulenn |
| les devises étrangères | foreign currency | arian tramor | moneiz estren (?) |
Category: Welsh (Cymraeg)
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le linge | laundry (clothes) | dillad golchi; y golch | lien |
| la blanchisserie | laundry (shop, place) | golchdy | gwennerezh; kannerezh |
| la laverie (automatique) | laundrette | laundrette | gwalc’herezh; kanndi |
| la guérison | curing, healing, recovery | iachau; iachâd | pare; gwelladeg |
| la gueule de bois | hangover | pen mawr/clwc; salwch bore drannoeth; salwch ar ôl y ffair | poan vlev |
| joindre les deux bouts | to make ends meet | cael deu ben llinyn ynghyd | |
| avoir beaucoup de mal à joindre les deux bouts; tirer le diable par la queue | to stuggle to make ends meet | cael yn anodd i gael dau ben llinyn ynghyd | |
| l’influence (f) de l’entourage; pression exercée par les autres | peer pressure | pwysau cyfoedion | |
| le loup de mer | old seadog; sea bass | hen forwr; ysbinbysg y môr | bleiz mor; ki mor |
| farcir | to stuff (food) | llenwi; stwffio | farsañ |
| le fenouil | fennel | ffenigl; ffunell | fanouilh |
| malveillant | evil (person) | drwg; drygionus; dihiryn | maliset |
| branlant | wobbly (chair/table) | sigledig; siglog; woblog | brall; divrall |
| tremblant | wobbly (voice/jelly) | crynedig | krenedik |
| avoir les jambes flageolantes | to feel wobbly | teimlo yn sigledig / siglog / woblog | sentet trabidellus |
| Je ne te reproche pas | I don’t blame you | ni welaf i ddim bai arnat ti | |
| une motte de gazon | sod; piece of turf | darn o dywarchen | moudenn leton |
| brouter | to graze (on grass) | pori | peuriñ |
| mouchard | grass (informer) | prepiwr; hen brep; clep; clepgi | to(u)pin |
| donner qn | to grass on sb | prepian am/ar rywun | kelaouiñ da unan bennak |
| la flottabilité | buoyancy | hynofedd | flotuster |
La gueule de bois
This week I discovered that in French a hangover is une gueule de bois (“a wooden mouth”), which seems quite a good description of the condition.
In my thesaurus word for hangover in English include after-effects, katzenjammer, morning after, and the morning after the night before. Do you have any others?
I’ve heard of katzenjammer before, but not in this context – to me it’s the name of a band from Norway. Katzenjammer comes from German and means “cats’ wailing”, and according to the Free Dictionary, it means a confused uproar or a hangover, mainly in US English.
Welsh words for hangover include pen mawr (big head); pen clwc (addled head), salwch bore drannoeth (illness of the following morning) and salwch ar ôl y ffair (illness after the fair).
Since I gave up drinking about 11 years ago I haven’t suffered from a wooden mouth, an addled head or a cats’ wailing, and one reason why I gave up was because I didn’t enjoy such afflictions.
Everything but the kitchen sink
The phrase ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ indicates many things or almost everything, as in ‘I took everything but the kitchen sink with me on holiday. The OED gives the earliest use of the phrase in writing as 1965. The kitchen sink part of the phrase apparently comes from army slang and appears in Partridge’s 1948 Dictionary of Forces’ Slang as “Kitchen sink, used only in the phrase indicating intense bombardment ‘They chucked everything they’d got at us except, or including, the kitchen sink.’”
According to Know Your Phrase, however, it appeared in The Syracuse Herald, an New York newspaper in 1918 in the following sentence.
“I have I shall rather enjoy the experience, though the stitlons are full of people trying to get out and the streets blocked with perambulators, bird cages and ‘everything but the kitchen sink.'”
I discovered yesterday that the French equivalent is ‘tout sauf les murs‘ (everything but the walls), as in j’ai tout emporté sauf les murs = I took everything but the walls.
In Welsh the equivalents are popeth dan haul (everything under the sun) and eich holl drugareddau (your whole bric-a-brac).
Are there equivalent idioms in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le filet | net | rhwyd | tanavenn |
| le siège (chair, stool, toilet); la place (on bus/train); la selle (bicycle) | seat | sedd | seziz |
| la hache d’arme | battleaxe | bwyell ryfel; cadfwyell | kadvouc’hal |
| le virago | battleaxe (quarrelsome woman) | hen sguthan; hen arthes | oz(h)ac’hwreg |
| le coucou | cuckoo | cwcw; cog | koukoug |
| la pendule à coucou | cuckoo clock | cloc cwcw | |
| le loutre | otter | dyfrgi | dourgi |
| le slip | underpants | trôns; drafers | bragez vihan |
| les caleçons; les longs | longjohns / leggings | trôns llaes; drafers hir | bragoù-dindan |
| le (chapeau) haut-de-forme | top hat | het silc | |
| le (chapeau) melon | bowler hat | het galed; het gron (galed) | tog-meloñs; tok pompad |
| le chapeau mou | trilby | het feddal; het drilbi | |
| le dent; la roue dentée | cog | dant; cocsyn; olwyn ddannedd | rod dantek |
| être un rouage de la machine | to be (only) a cog in a machine | bod neb o bwys yn y drefn | |
| la gargote | greasy spoon, cheap restaurant | bwyty bwyd loddin; bwyty rhad | tarzhell |
| j’ai tout emporté sauf les murs | I’ve packed everything but the kitchen sink | popeth dan haul; eich holl drugareddau | |
| la gouttière | guttering | landeri; landerydd; bargod | kan-dour |
| le jardin d’hiver | conservatory | ty gwydr; ystafell wydr | jardin go(u)añv |
| la croisière | cruise | mordaith; criws | merdeadenn |
| être en maraude | to cruise (for customers, i.e. taxi) |
It’s on the knitting needles
Yesterday I discovered that the Welsh idiom, ar y gweill, which can be translated as ‘in the pipeline’, ‘on the way’, ‘in hand’ or ‘underway’ literally means “on the knitting needles”. It’s the plural of gweillen (knitting needle). To knit is gwau or gweu, and a knitter is gwëwr, gweuwr or gwëydd.
Here are some examples of how it is used (from MyMemory translated.net):
– Mae hynny ar y gweill = That has been set in place
– Mae cynlluniau ar y gweill = Plans are in the pipeline
– Mae’r paratoadau ar y gweill = Preparations for this are underway
– Mae’r trafodaethau hyn ar y gweill = These discussions are in hand
I don’t think I’ve come across any knitting-related idioms like this before, so it caught my attention. Do you know any knitting related idioms?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| la brute; le tyran | bully | bwli | tirant |
| tyraniser; rudoyer; intimider | to bully | gormesu; bwlio | gaiet gante; abafiñ |
| la laisse | lead | tennyn | roll |
| le pont | deck (of ship) | bwrdd | pont |
| la passerelle (de commandement) | bridge (of ship) | pont (lywio) | pontenn |
| l’arête (f) / le dos | bridge (of nose) | cefn | ker |
| le chevalet | bridge (of violin) | pont | pontig |
| quand le chat n’est pas là, les souris dansent | when the cat’s away the mice will play | llon llygod lle ni bo cath |
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| se vendre | to sell out | gwerthu rhth i gyd; gwerthu’r cwbl | gwerzhañ holl (?) |
| la sueur | sweat | chwys | c’hwezenn |
| suer; transpirer | to sweat | chwysu | c’hweziñ |
| suer/transpirer comme un boeuf | to sweat like a pig | chwysu fel mochyn/ceffyl | |
| la scène musicale | the music scene | man cerddoriaeth (?) | |
| ouvert aux éléments | open to the elements | agor i’r gwynt a glaw; agor i’r tywydd mawr | |
| le pavé | paving stone | carreg balmant; fflacsen | pavez |
| la gare routière/d’autobus | bus station | gorsaf fysus | gar ar c’hirri-boutin |
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| avoir une idée en tête; être obnublié par qch | to have a bee in one’s bonnet | chwilen yn dy ben | |
| être imbu(e) de soi-même | to be full of oneself | bod yn llawn ohonat ti dy hunan | |
| imbiber qch de | to soak sth in | gwylchu/mwydo rhwybeth mewn | intrañ; spluiañ; gouzourañ |
| s’imbiber de | to become saturated with | dirlenwi efo/gyda | gouzourañ |
| le noisetier | hazel (tree) | cyll | kelver |
| la dépression; la cuvette | hollow | pant; cafn; ceudod | izelder |
| le tourbillon | whirlpool | trobwll; pwll tro | mordro(l)enn(ad); korvent; troenn-vor |
| le mode de comportement | pattern of behaviour | patrwm ymddygiad | patrom emzalc’h |
| l’élastique (m) | rubber band | band rwber/lastig | stirenn; lastikenn |
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
On Anglesey not far from where I live, there’s a place with quite a long name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG for short. It has the longest officially recognised place name in Europe which was contrived during the 1860s by a local man who wanted to attract visitors to the town – with great success. It was originally called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll.
The name breaks down into the following parts:
Llanfair [[ɬanvair] = St Mary’s church
– llan = church, parish, village
– fair = mair = Mary – the m of a feminine word mutates to f in a compound like this
Pwllgwyngyll [puɬɡwɨ̞ŋɡɨ̞ɬ] = hollow of white hazel trees
– pwll = pool, pit, hollow
– gwyn = white
– gyll = cyll = hazel trees
gogery = near the (not entirely sure about this part)
go [ɡo] = under (?)
ger [ɡɛr] = near
y [ə] = the
chwyrndrobwll = rapid whirpool
– chwyrn [χwərən] = rapid
– drobwll [drobuɬ] = trobwll = whirpool (tro = to turn, pwll = pool)
Llantysilio [ɬantɨ̞siljo] = St Tysilio’s church
gogogoch = (of the) red cave
gogo [ɡoɡo] = ogof = cave
goch [ɡoːχ] = coch = red
This post was requested by André Bosch.