Your favourite foreign words with literal meanings

[Brefugee]

We were chatting about this on The Archers thread and i wondered if anyone else would like to join the convo.

I can't remember how it came about but anyway, two of my favourites are

• The Russian for machine-gun translates literally to bullet thrower
• The German for gloves translates literally to hand shoes

@BoomBoom70
I always thought it was para as in "stop" rather than "for".
As in, a parasol stops the sun coming through

@GameofPhones - I think English has a few in that vein eg 'wet lettuce' or 'big girl's blouse' off the top of my head.

Tarragon is estragon in French, very similar.

Lying in bed with my German DP I’ve just remembered Lusttropfen - desire drops.

Estragon in German too, hence i just refil the jar i bought in the Netherlands

Turtle in German is sumpfschildkröte. It means swamp shelled toad.

But remember that Ei is also the word for testicles/balls in German so Weichei means that someone has no balls. I hear my German male friends and partner using it, late 40s and all juvenile. But I love them.

i also like the German expression for "nothing going on"/"it's so boring here" etc which translates to "it's all dead trousers"
Love the band, too.

I never knew that die toten hosen had that meaning! I saw them in Bremen, erm, some years back...

the UK Subs do a great version (in English) of Hier Kommt Alex which i love. and Die Toten Hosen do a fantastic version of Merry Xmas Everybody (I love Campino's English accent)

Think I’ll have to play their version of Auld Lang Syne at Sylvester.

I think DTH actually did a German language version of the Adicts (sic) Here Comes Alex.

according to what I've read (and i just checked) the Toten Hosen wrote it in German as a stage version of Clockwork Orange.

Oh! Thanks for that!