Meaning:
Lit. “to look for a bump on the head”. The phrase is used if a person is provocative towards potential adversaries or completely reckless and exposing themselves, risking an accident.
Category: Violence
Szewska pasja
Meaning:
Lit. “a shoemaker’s rage/passion”. An uncontrollable anger driving a person to swear, shout, hit objects or people. It is very often used in “doprowadzać do szewskiej pasji” which means that something or someone drives a person mad.
Mieć kosę z
Meaning:
Lit. “to have a scythe with”. Most Poles associate this phrase with football (soccer) hooligans. This is where it has its origin in early 90s. It has spread into many other areas and became more or less understandable to general <45 Polish speakers but is still far away from its high register.
Zakazana morda
Meaning:
Lit. “a forbidden mug” – when talking about someone’s face of course. Poles use this phrase mentioning someone definitely looking like an alcoholic, a bum or a criminal.
Zrobić z dupy jesień średniowiecza
Meaning:
Lit. “to make the The Autumn of the Middle Ages of one’s ass”. I’m pretty sure this steps directly from the Polish translation of Marsellus Wallace’s line in Pulp Fiction: “I’m gonna git Medieval on your ass.” promising the rapist Zed a long and painful death. I think what happened is the people translating the movie, while lacking a matching set phrase in Polish, coined a new expression containing both the middle ages and the ass which turned out to be a brilliant idea and caught on among Polish movie (and middle ages) enthusiasts in the mid-90s.
The new invention sounds funny while retaining the seriousness of someone getting a severe punching.