4 ms·
"the English phrase like looking for a needle in a haystack" That's not that (particularily) English, you know? As many other expressions that crossed cultures
by userulluipeste 5y ago
"the English phrase like looking for a needle in a haystack"
That's not that (particularily) English, you know? As many other expressions that crossed cultures at some point, which (in some cases like this it would) most likely have taken place even before ethnogenesis of what's currently considered English, "the needle in the haystack" has a much broader spread.
- gorgoiler 5y agoI would love to hear of analogues from other cultures. Brewer’s Phrase & Fable 14th edition (the pink one) came up with this: “To look for a needle in a bottle of hay”, after the french botte for ‘bundle’. On the odd use of bottle: [Puck, to Titania] I could munch your good dry oats, methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. Interestingly, haywire is derived from a frenzied behaviour likened to the chaotic uncoiling of a feel of hay baling wire.
- chmod775 5y ago> I would love to hear of analogues from other cultures. In German it's pretty much just the literal translation of the English phrase and its variations: "(Wie) die Nadel im Heuhaufen suchen" - (like) looking for the needle in the haystack, etc.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoIt's the same in Spanish, I'm surprised how universal this concept has become, even with people that have never understood what needles have to do with haystacks. "Como buscar/hallar una aguja en un pajar" (like looking for/finding a needle in a haystack) means taking/achieving a nearly impossible task.
- dirktheman 5y agoIt's the same in Dutch: "zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg" is a well known analogy.
- monk_e_boy 5y agoI was walking with my French girl, I told her that I know these woods like the back of my hand. She said she knew them like the inside of her pocket.
- runxel 5y ago"Wie meine Westentasche" in German – "Like my vest's (waistcoat's) pocket.
- tingle 5y agoFrench expression is "chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin". First known use is 1652, source: https://www.expressio.fr/expressions/chercher-une-aiguille-dans-une-botte-meule-de-foin https://www.expressio.fr/expressions/chercher-une-aiguille-d... (also provides equivalent expressions in several other languages).
- jaclaz 5y agoIn Italian, we actually have two of them: cercare un ago in un pagliaio literally looking for a needle in a haystack or sometimes: trovare l'ago in un pagliaio literally finding the needle in the haystack the meaning is slightly different, the first is more about describing something vane, the latter is more about describing something very, very difficult or nearly impossible but that by luck or some other reason actually happened. For the record, I believe there is very little typically Romanian in that way of making haystacks, many, many years ago (before the machines came) haystacks in Italy were made with the same techniques, maybe they actually date back to theRomans.
- celticninja 5y agoI mean it is in English, so it is quite English. Yes the idiom may be common in other cultures and languages, but that would be e.g 'the Romanian phrase {Romanian language equivalent of the phrase}' It is not implying ownership of the idiom to the English language, just that specific phrasing. Which I think we can both agree is in English, and it is a phrase.
- ddalex 5y ago> {Romanian language equivalent of the phrase} Acul din vagonul cu fân. Literal translation: The needle in the hay wagon.