For no reason at all, please give me your favourite cow-related figures of speech!
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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)
Well, not really a figure of speech, but still one of my favourite sayings about cows : "Als de koe naar Rome gaat, ontmoet ze al gauw prikkeldraad".
When the cow goes to Rome, she quickly encounters barbed wire.
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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)
This is a great thread. It reminded me of the old
"Cows With Guns - The Original Animation" -
@sundogplanets In French: "Il pleut comme vache qui pisse", "It's raining like a pissing cow".
@brunogirin or "oh vache" for suprise + you speak a whole lot of cow - South African for talking shit. @sundogplanets
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Two German ones:
"Die Kuh vom Eis holen" ("getting the cow off the ice") - resolving a difficult situation
"Das geht auf keine Kuhhaut" (this goes on no cow-skin) - expressing mild outrage
(sorry, no puns involved)
But since you asked for puns:
- Why is it difficult to hit a cow?
- Because it's a mooing target.(disclaimer: don't hit cows.)
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@amin @sundogplanets @skinnylatte there's actually a lot of YouTube videos of people playing music for cows because cows love live music.
This said, I bet it was this video
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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 Portuguese, when a person is a cheapskate, we call them "cow-fisted" or "cow hands"
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@urlyman @sundogplanets I herd you.
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@sundogplanets obviously the classic... "Consider a spherical cow..."
@ivor @sundogplanets a spherical massless frictionless cow!
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"You can't eat a steak and later complain there is no more milk".
In a press release I sold that for "ancient wisdom" but actually I invented it 10 minutes before.
@GustavinoBevilacqua @sundogplanets however, I have heard that before. It must be a vague memory in your unconscious that surfaced - it happens to me quite a lot.
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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!

