Category: Metaphors

Kaleczyć język

Meaning:

Lit. “to cut/wound a tongue/language” as in Polish the “język” noun is used to convey both meanings. The expression is a metaphor used to describe someone speaking a language poorly and making many grammatical or lexical mistakes. You can hear it when Poles talk about a foreigner trying to use their language – or a Pole speaking bad English or German.

You could also say “skaleczył się w język” – he cut/wounded his tongue – no metaphor, just bloody facts. This sentence is pretty unequivocal due to the use of reflexive form of the verb with “się” (herself/himself).

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Mieć węża w kieszeni

Meaning:

Lit. “to have a snake in the pocket” which refers to somebody being very thrifty, or even, stingy. Poles readily apply this to inhabitants of my hometown Kraków who are widely known to save every penny they can. And so, such a person is under no circumstances willing to put hand in their pocket as if the said reptilian was sitting there waiting to bite them.

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Pocałować klamkę

Meaning:

Lit. “to kiss the doorknob”. This is used to say that someone tried to meet a person or enter a building in order to buy something, get some information or, say, attend a concert, but wasn’t let in or the person she/he wanted to meet wasn’t there.

The expression itself is fairly neutral, not necessarily suggesting bad intentions of the hosting party, but is quite often used to say that, for instance, the manager actually was at the office,but simply did not want to talk to an employee and instructed her/his secretary to say she/he’s out.

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Brać na klatę

Meaning:

Lit. “to take on the chest” which figuratively means to take responsibility, take over some difficult or inconvenient task, especially if multiple people could take over but only one of them volunteers. This colloquial expression stems from the most common bench press exercise in which you are able to “take on” a specific weight attached to barbells. In Poland’s gyms you can quite often hear that somebody “bierze na klatę 120” which means he is able to do bench pressing with 120 kilograms on the bar. A similar expression “przyjąć na klatę” is used to describe trapping ball with chest in football.

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Tu leży pies pogrzebany

Meaning:

Lit. “that’s where the dog lies buried” which seems to have been adopted from German and is present in multiple other, not only slavic or germanic languages. It’s used to point at the cause or the focal point of whatever is being discussed. Quite often one of people in a discussion jumps in with this expression as soon as he or she hears about whatever seems to be a key factor. It  therefore also serves to stress one’s own opinion.

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