Monday, November 12, 2012

Food and language



Daily, we use figurative language to refer to something.

I’ll particularly talk about these figurative meanings, called idiomatic expressions. They are a 
combination of words which are separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it’s made. I’ll talk about the ones which are used by the people in The United States, but related to food.

It’s difficult to understand these idiomatic expressions if you are not a native speaker. For that, I’ll give you a list with several idiomatic expressions and theirs explanations.


- Big Apple:  referred to New York.

- Cooking with gas:  If you're working very efficiently.

- Fall off the turnip truck: Turnip: a vegetable. Used for example in ‘’I didn’t just fall off of the turnip truck’’, that means that I’m not fool.

- Go fry an egg: ‘’Go away and let me alone, stop bothering me ’’.

- Go pound salt:  ‘’Shut up!’’ or also ‘’go away’’.

- How do you like them apples: It’s used to express surprise or shock at something that has happened. It can also be used to boast about something you have done.

- Like green corn through the new maid: meaning fast, also "skinny as a raffle turkey".

- Like nailing jello to the wall: If something is impossible or difficult to understand. For instance, ‘’Negotiating with these people is like trying to nail jello to the wall’’.

- Not know beans about: To know anything about something.

- Polish the apples: To try to make someone like you.

- Put some mustard on it!: This is a baseball expression. It's used to encourage someone to throw a ball like a baseball hard or fast.

- Rest is gravy: The rest is free, the rest of the money is profit.

- Slower than molasses going uphill in January: To move extremely slowly.

- You can't have cake and the topping, too:  it  means that you can't have everything the way you want 
it.


By:  Patricia Domínguez

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