Description

No need for thanking me!
Rather, I would appreciate if you wrote any nice or funny or interesting word / phrase / insult in your native language (please add the language and the translation)
Thanks a lot from me ;)

Nothing new for you here, but I'll write it in English, so everybody can understand it:
I find the German word for butterfly quite inappropriate: Schmetterling. Because "Schmetter" is to smash probably to clango(u)r and the suffix "-ling" just makes it to "someone who smashes clango(u)res". When I was thinking about this word, I imagined some angry dwarf smashing everything around him with a hammer playing loudly on a tuba, not a petite, beautiful flying creature ;D
Corrected due to have been corrected

8 years ago*
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I'm speaking german myself as my native language but I have never gave that a second thought though. You're right the name doesn't fit the animal at all ^^

8 years ago
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About butterflies... well, in Portuguese it's borboleta, while in Spanish it's mariposa.

Mariposa happens to be the word we use for "moth", while in Spanish they seem to use the same word for both butterflies and moths.

And, at least in my city, we often call moths bruxa, which means "witch", which leads them to be usually killed when they get too close to stupid hoomans... by the way, I've met lots of people that are afraid of butterflies/moths, kind of interesting.

8 years ago
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moth is "polilla" in Spanish, moths are gross, butterflies aren't xD

8 years ago
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Guess I learned it wrong :(

8 years ago
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(I'm too tired to translate this to Englisch, and it loses a lot in translation, anyway. It boils down to a small linuguistic mistake.)

Du denkst da an "zerschmettern", nicht "schmettern" - zweiteres lässt sich gut mit einem Blechblasinstrument oder einer Trommel bewerkstelligen.

Wikipedia hat übrigens einen netten Eintrag über die Herkunft des Namens im Schmetterlings-Artikel.

Die Kurzfassung ist: Das "Schmetter" kommt von einem altdeutschen/slawischen Wort für "Sahne", womit es dem englischen "butterfly" stark ähnelt.

8 years ago
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Ich muss zugeben, dass ich zuerst auch "schmettern" in den Übersetzer eingegeben habe, aber das Wort "clango(u)r" hatte ich noch nie gehört, darum bin ich dann auf zerschmettern ausgewichen.
Allerdings wird es auch mit schmettern, im Sinne des Geräusches, nicht wirklich besser ;D Der kleine Schmetterling ist nun wirklich nicht für seine Lautstärke bekannt ;)
Aber jetzt trägt der Zwerg in meiner Vorstellung eben eine Tuba ; )

8 years ago
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Ах ты ж хитрый +) Не спасибо тебе , не добрый человек =)
p.s. Russian language.

8 years ago
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I love the "anecdote" my mom told me once. She said that the mosti nsulting thing my gradnfather has ever said to my grandmother was "Ty stará víchrica!", which translated as "You old gale!" I always found it kinda cute for some reason.

8 years ago
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Amadán - Irish for 'idiot'. o/

8 years ago
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"Fui ao mar colher cordões, vim do mar cordões colhi."
A tongue twister in Portuguese.

8 years ago
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Thanks! Nothing special comes to mind, but here's one:
The word for 'cake' in romanian is 'prăjitură', but 'a prăji' means 'to fry', so it doesn't fit right to me, plus it definetly doesn't increase my apetite for cake whenever I think about it. I guess this is similar to 'kidnapping' in english and other weird words.

8 years ago
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