On Sep 13, 2005, at 18:11, Martha Krieg wrote:
"Knee high to a Grasshopper" is another phrase quite often heard in
Oz. Meaning a very short person, or small child.
That was common when I was growing up in Ohio, too.
And the first time I'd seen it was in a Dick Francis (Brit) book. As a
matter of fact, more than half of the phrases/sayings which Ozzies had
been sending in for the last few days have been familiar to me from
either Brit or US books - or both - for 32 yrs and I always assumed
they were "generic English" - probably used in in places like New
Zealand and South Afica as well :) Which is only to be expected,
really, given that all those countries use the same language and so
watch the same films, read the same books, etc.
What's really spooky is to hear from one of my German corresponents
that a phrase I always thought was "strictly Polish" is used in
German... The two languages are totally different, but the proximity
(we share a border) has resulted in similiarities of *thought*, so that
when an apt and interesting phrase occured in one language, it was
often translated into the other...
And, further on the matter of translations of apt sayings... I can't
quote any more (memory not being what it used to be 30-35 yrs ago) but
I was struck by how often Shakespeare's "saws" occur in everyday
Polish. Only... half of the time, they're not the same ones commonly
occuring in English... :)
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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