For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech!
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From Norway:
"'Smaken er som baken,' sa kjerringa som kyssa kua" ('Tastes differ', said the wife who kissed the cow.)
"Kua gløymar ho har vore kalv" (The cow forgets she was once a calf -- typically said when someone is complaining about or berating the youth.)
"Det var ikkje eit kuverd" ([The loss] wasn't the value of a cow -- "It could have been worse.")
"Som ei ku i grøn eng" (Like a cow in a green meadow -- having it good, being in a good position.)
@skjeggtroll @sundogplanets there are more at https://naob.no/ordbok/ku#:~:text=UTTRYKK
"glo som en ku på en låvedør" (staring like a cow at a (new) barn door = staring without understanding, as cows don't notice your hard work)
"komme som kua til øksehammeren" (arrive like the cow to the ax-hammer = arrive at the right moment)
"som en ku i havsnød" (like a cow lost at sea / in danger of drowning = be in deep difficulties)
And my favourite:
"som en ku i aulaen" (like a cow in the auditorium = out of place)
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets in Brazil we use ‘the cow went to the swamp’ when something went wrong.
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets There´s no business like cow business.
Fun fact: most people think it´s "show business", but the song is from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun", which was about the Wild West and people back then weren´t called cow-boys/-girls for nothing...so, totally misheard and please don´t fact check me. I never lie!
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@sundogplanets In Dutch we say "Dat is een waarheid als een koe", which literally translates to "That is a truth like a cow", meaning that it is *very* true. I guess b/c you cannot avoid a cow when it is in front of you.
@anna @sundogplanets do Dutch horses bolt though?
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@skjeggtroll @sundogplanets there are more at https://naob.no/ordbok/ku#:~:text=UTTRYKK
"glo som en ku på en låvedør" (staring like a cow at a (new) barn door = staring without understanding, as cows don't notice your hard work)
"komme som kua til øksehammeren" (arrive like the cow to the ax-hammer = arrive at the right moment)
"som en ku i havsnød" (like a cow lost at sea / in danger of drowning = be in deep difficulties)
And my favourite:
"som en ku i aulaen" (like a cow in the auditorium = out of place)
@skjeggtroll @sundogplanets also:
"som to raude kyr" (like two red cows = besties)
"då var kua selt" (so the cow was sold = no turning back now)
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@JonasJRichter @sundogplanets there is a whole low-german folk song "Herrn Pastor sien Kauh" with countless verses of what the whole village gets from the carcass of that priests cow that just died - from the fire department getting a new pot of greese for their truck, the sexton a new bell pull, the painter a new brush, the local beauty a new set of hymen, the marching band a new drumskin, the old lady a new set of dentures to Napoleon getting a flea and the neighbour state the head as heraldic symbol for the flag...
Ooh, I vaguely remember the title now that you mention it!
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
What's persistence? - Give a cow a sugar cube and lick its rear (anus) until it tastes sweet.
(from Germany)
Can also be used without the "persistence" bit to describe futility (or stupidity).
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
"Please remember to tip your cow."
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@sundogplanets Many French phrases with cows, most of them unflatteting (for the cows, I mean).
"To talk like a spanish cow" -> to be unable to talk properly (probably "basque espagnol" was transmuted into "vache espagnole")
We don't say "pigs", but "cows" for cops (this one comes from German : Wache -> vache). Lots of "death to the cows" graffiti around.
@legendarybassoon @sundogplanets
Do you know what Spanish cows actually say?
Moooochas gracias! -
For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets There is one from Turkish: “Don’t look for a calf under an ox!” to describe a search of fabricated evidences just to blame someone (out of convenience).
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@ivor @sundogplanets a spherical massless frictionless cow!
@srvanderplas @ivor @sundogplanets In a vacuum!
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets In Spain "eres más pesado que una vaca en brazos" literally means "you are heavier than carrying a cow in your arms". In Spain we use the same word for being heavy and being a pain to deal with, the word is *pesado*.
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@amin @sundogplanets It is not a bucket full of milk. It is the bucket that you stand on when you are going to hang yourself.
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets I love all the global contributions!! I can’t think of any in english that are nearly as fun lol
maybe bart simpson: don’t have a cow, man.
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets "Beef to the heels like a Mullingar heifer!!"
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets another from Brazil. "Tempo de vacas magras" which translates to "skinny cows period", used when we are facing hard economic times
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@ReneDamkot @sundogplanets also from nl: achteraf kijk je de koe in de kont (lit. after the fact, all there's left to see is the cow's ass, meaning something like no crying over spilled milk)
@DutchCheryl @ReneDamkot @sundogplanets Als de kalveren op het ijs dansen (equivalent to “when pigs fly”, just a different animal and different mode of locomotion).
Koeienletters (cow’s letters, very large text, with a sense of “so obvious that you can’t miss it”. Especially when someone did miss it and got an unfavourable result that reading the text in koeienletters could have prevented.)
Stom als een rund: dully stupid.
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@nest @sundogplanets Read this month’s Scientific American for more on cow tools!
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For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech! (Stuff like "No use crying over spilled milk" or "until the cows come home", puns extremely welcome)
@sundogplanets An elderly neighbour used to describe something very dark as "being blacker than the inside of a cow". She used it semi regularly.
