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I 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 bottl

I 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 ago
  It'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 ago
It's the same in Dutch: "zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg" is a well known analogy.
monk_e_boy 5y ago
I 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 ago
French 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 ago
In 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.

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 ago
It'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 ago

It's the same in Dutch: "zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg" is a well known analogy.

monk_e_boy 5y ago

I 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 ago

French 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 ago

In 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.