Elephant's Child have given the prompts for tomorrows Words for Wednesday. I just copy / paste, what she wrote:
This week's prompts are a little different. In an idle moment I realised that a LOT of our common idioms include animals in them. I am going to list some of the more common (in English at least) phrases and would really like to see what you can do with them - and particularly if you can create a story which involves different common phrases and/or animals. Feel free to mix and match - or to introduce different phrases of your own:
Has the cat got your tongue?
Curiosity killed the cat.
Let the cat out of the bag.
Dog tired.
Sick as a dog.
Like a dog with two tails.
The elephant in the room.
A one-trick pony.
Open a can of worms.
Busy as a bee.
Have fun.
Well, let's see where this takes me. The idioms in Danish are not the same except for very few ...
For my story of Susan and her friends I had made a collection of idioms like these, only as a wizard-born would say them. The problem is that many of them does not exist in English. ... or at least are different.
Well here's my collection of wizarding idioms and their mundane counterparts in Danish and if necessary an explanation or the English idiom.
Let sleeping unicorns lie. - Let sleeping dogs lie - same.
Ahh ... that's where the boggart is buried. - Where the dog is buried - same.
Living where the dragons turn back - Where the crows turn back - In the back of beyond.
Swim like a hippocamp - Swim like a dolphin - Swim like a fish
to be continued ..
"living where the dragons turn back" - I like that.
SvarSletXO
WWW
Thank you - I need to tell the story where Sandra says this to Susan, but my writing mojo has left me - my Christmas wish is for it to return. I miss writing!
SletI am so glad that you are broadening my/our perspective. Some the same, some different. And yes I also really like 'living where the dragons turn back'. I do hope that your mojo returns as an early Christmas gift. For you, and for us.
SvarSletThank you for your never failing support.
SletMy hope is that you will write, even awful stuff, even just lists and silly things, just to get the blocks out of the way. It can help.
SvarSletFascinating the comparison of different idioms.
Funny thing is,, that I can, and do, write lists, verses, other small things. It's only Unicorn Farm that's affected by the block. Or rather Words for Wednesday, Whenever I sit down and look at those prompts, my brain goes blank.
SletI love those idioms too, those and the collective nouns like a murder of crows are my favourite language "devices".