May 2, 2014--Без муки нет науки

Без муки нет науки in Russian means, "Without torture, no science." But in usage, as an idiom, it means, "Adversity is a good teacher."


How much richer, more vivid the former. The idiomatic meaning. Though it makes little literal sense, emotively it works better.

No one knows how idioms come into usage. How they are transmuted from the literal to the idiomatic. But they do, and most languages are seasoned with many.

How did, "Let's get down to brass tacks"--a fabric salesmen's saying to a customer it's time to measure the length of a piece of cotton so they can complete the transaction--yards and segments of yards were delineated by a series of brass tacks on the cutting table--get to more generally mean "Let's get serious, Let's get it done"?

Many are country or culture specific. Like the ones from American baseball such as--

"Step up to the plate"; "How do I get to first [or third!] third base with you?"; "Ballpark estimate"; "Playing hardball"; or "Grandstanding."

There are hundreds of other American idioms, including--

"Kick the bucket," "Bring home the bacon,""Mum's the word," "Head over heels in love," "Go cold turkey," "Chewing the fat," or "This one is for the birds."

All wonderful, including not always knowing the first usage or how they were absorbed into the language.

Then there are idioms derived from English Cricket--

"To be stumped," (when the bails are knocked off the three cricket stumps and the batter is out); "To be knocked for six," (similar to a home run when a batted ball is hit so far it passes through the entire pitch untouched and yields six runs, which then idiomatically means surprised or overwhelmed); or to encounter a "Sticky wicket," an idiomatic tough situation, which suggests the bails on top of the stumps are not falling and feel as if they are stuck in place).

Or French idioms that I had a devil of a time memorizing in high school--

Arriver comme un chien un jeu de quille. Literally, "To arrive like a dog at a bowling game" and idiomatically, "To turn up unexpectedly."

Le doigts dans le nez. Literally, "Fingers in the nose" and as an idiom, something that is "very easy."

Then, one of my favorites, Avoir le cul borde de nouilles, "To have an ass full of noodles," which idiomatically means, "To be lucky."

And aren't we lucky to have our languages enriched this way.