#expressions – Joanna the nomad

Think you’re the cat’s whiskers – or even the dog’s bollocks – when it comes to knowing your animal idioms in British English? You’re probably right – so the next time you’re listening to your friend rabbiting on, why not try dropping one of the following common British expressions into your conversation? You’ll soon sound like you’ve been speaking British English for donkey’s years.

1. Make a pig’s ear of something

Dictionary definition: handle something ineptly

Have you ever seen a pig’s ear? While in Britain these fatty, hairy appendages have traditionally been given to dogs as a treat, their use in international cuisine is starting to have an impact on the London restaurant scene. It’s quite possible, however, that pig’s ear was originally pig’s rear – which perhaps makes more sense.

Continue reading “[For the OxfordWords blog:] 10 British animal idioms and expressions”

Just a few weeks ago Christine Lindberg explored phrases and idioms that revealed the somewhat surprising way in which the English language describes man’s best friend. But what about that equally popular household pet – the beloved, fluffy, crazy cat? (Those three adjectives are among some of the most popular in the English language to precede the word cat, according to the Oxford English Corpus.) I decided to look at how our feline friends are portrayed in expressions and sayings – but this time I wanted to compare the way that cats are depicted in the English language with the way that they appear in other languages. So using the bilingual dictionaries available in Oxford Language Dictionaries Online (Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish), I began researching whether cats are known universally for getting the cream.

Continue reading “[For the OxfordWords blog:] Let’s just “call a cat a cat”: cat idioms in foreign languages”

About Joanna the Nomad

Joanna Rubery worked for Oxford Dictionaries on and off for over fifteen years, and now writes and edits children’s literature. She has also spent considerable time as a travelling writer and musician while teaching English around the world. So far she’s lived and worked in Belgium, Cambodia, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Japan, India, and Spain. She’s also worked voluntarily in Peru, and spent a lot of time in Ireland.

Joanna’s travel writing and articles on language have been published by Oxford University Press, Wanderlust, and the Christchurch Press. She has also won and been placed in several Very Short Fiction competitions, and her short stories have been published in Narrative magazine and the Grindstone Literary Anthology.