D•Scribe
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish · 1 年前

What is your country's "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"?

message-square
message-square
68
link
fedilink
66
message-square

What is your country's "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"?

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish · 1 年前
message-square
68
link
fedilink
alert-triangle
You must log in or register to comment.
  • Outsider9042@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 年前

    Yeah, nah .

    • Australia
    • slazer2au@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 年前

      .ǝʇɐɯ ɐu ,ɥɐǝʎ

    • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 年前

      Nah, yeah

      • Outsider9042@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 年前

        Yeah yeah nah, nah yeah.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 年前

      New Zealand

  • li10@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 年前

    You can’t polish a turd.

    • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 年前

      I dunno, man… Look up coprolite. You can absolutely polish them.

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      Having looked at some of the reports I have to clean up, I can tell you that yes, in fact, you CAN polish a turd

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 年前

        You CAN polish a turd but it’s still shit

        • the_kung_fu_emu@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 年前

          You can’t polish a turd; you can roll it in glitter.

  • Footnote2669@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    1 年前

    Polish - „you can’t make a whip out of shit” „z gówna bicza nie ukręcisz”

    • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 年前

      I think this takes home the prize for weirdest.

    • down daemon@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 年前

      I can sure as hell try

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 年前

      I like this one

    • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 年前

      I imagine it wouldn’t hurt as much as a whip, but probably equally intimidating.

  • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    1 年前

    “You can’t get blood from a stone” is classic in the US. “No more juice from the squeeze” is another variant.

    • H4mi@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 年前

      How is that even similar?

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 年前

        How is it not? The euphemisms all mean you “cant get X from Y.”

        Both of my examples mean exactly that.

        • ArbitraryMary@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          1 年前

          “You can’t make a silk purse from sows ear” means you can’t make something nice from rubbish. “You can’t get blood from a stone” means attempting something difficult, if not impossible and futile”. E.g. “trying to get my kids to tell me about their school day is like trying to get blood from a stone.” It doesn’t matter how hard I try I get nothing.

          • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 年前

            A sow is a female pig, which doesnt produce silk at all. Attempting to get silk from it would be difficult, if not impossible and futile. It wouldn’t matter how hard you try, you would get nothing.

            You can get as much silk from a sows ear as you can get blood from a stone. I dont see much differnce, but i guess the sows ear phrase requires more culture context if it means “you can’t get something nice from rubbish.”

            • putoelquelolea@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 年前

              One of the versions I have heard about this analogy comes from corn silk. The corn fed to pigs is usually of the lowest quality, and if you use the silk from cheap ears of corn, you won’t be able to make a useful purse out of it

  • INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 年前

    You can hope in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fills up first.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 年前

      Oh my god, I did not expect to be hit with the wisdom stick THAT hard

      • INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 年前

        Don’t worry it missed you.

        Ayyylmao jk love you.

    • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 年前

      Dare I ask which country speaks words that cannot be truer.

      Edit: saw your instance…

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 年前

        In sweden there is the same but with spit in one hand, wish in the other.

        • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 年前

          Sorry, sir, I like shit.

      • INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 年前

        That’s right. It’s from New Zealand.

    • MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      That is actually pretty funny.

      • INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 年前

        It’s incredibly fun to drop on people when they innocently 'I hope blah blah blah.

  • viking@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 年前

    You can’t pick a naked man’s pocket.

    • d41@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      1 年前

      That’s nature’s pocket.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 年前

        The prison wallet

      • Synthuir@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 年前

        “Make sure he doesn’t pick your pocket!”

    • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 年前

      Challenge accepted.

  • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    edit-2
    1 年前

    巧妇难为无米之炊 – “even the cleverest house wife cannot cook without rice”.

    Welcome to the Rice Fields, Motherfucker meme

    https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/巧婦難為無米之炊

    • randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 年前

      The proverb you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear means you can’t create a fine product from inferior materials.

      I’d argue it’s closer to 朽木不可雕^. 巧婦難為無米之炊 (巧妇难为无米之炊) is more like you can’t make stuff without the necessary requirements.

      ^朽木不可雕: Lit. Rotten wood can’t be carved, metaphorically You can’t teach a student that is too dumb.

      … Well actually no. Upon looking into these 3 idioms further while composing this comment, I leaned more and more towards that 巧婦難為無米之炊 is actually closer. Why? Because 朽木不可雕 applies only to humans and it puts more of a focus on the rotten wood (aka the dumb student).

      I guess this comment was kind of useless lol but I decided to post it anyway because I put in way too much effort

  • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.mlOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 年前

    Probably the closest in Irish is “is deacair olann a bhaint de ghabhar” (it’s hard to get wool from a goat)

    • Outsider9042@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      Depends where you live I guess. Mohair and cashmere come from goats.

  • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    1 年前

    I guess we use “Making gold from straw” (German).

    • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 年前

      Isn’t there literally a German fairy tale about someone able to make straw into gold?

      • Dojan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 年前

        Rumpelstiltskin.

        Naomi Novik wrote a lovely book inspired by it called “Spinning Silver.”

      • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 年前

        Yes, that’s where it’s from.

  • JuanPeece@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    1 年前

    You can put your boots in the oven, but that don’t make 'em biscuits

  • HauntingScience@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    1 年前

    “You can’t expect pears out of an elm tree” or “No le pidas peras al olmo”

    • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 年前

      German for “like father, like son” is “the apple doesn’t fall far off the tree trunk”. But many people nowadays use “the apple doesn’t fall far off the pear tree”, which is a variant that I think originally was supposed to suggest illegitimate fatherhood.

      • Instigate@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 年前

        That’s interesting, because “the apple doesn’t/didn’t fall far from the tree” is a known Anglophonic saying that basically means that a child turned out a lot like a parent (gender not necessarily specified). I wonder if one is a calque of the other.

        • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          1 年前

          The above poster isnt really correct. We have an actual saying that is the literal translation: "Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm ". And it means exactly what you suggest, a child being very much like one of their parents in one way or another.

          Like father, like son exists as well, “Wie der Vater so der Sohn”.

          • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 年前

            Lmao your username 😭

          • federalreverse-old@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 年前

            You’re right, I forgot about the fact that there’s a literal translation. But besides being gender-neutral, both sayings mean the same, no?

            My main point was that many Germans now regularly use the pear-tree malapropism, however.

    • BellaDonna@mujico.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      Isn’t that more like “you can’t ask an elm tree for pears?”

      And even more literally “don’t ask for pears to the elm?”

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 年前

    Lipstick on a pig along with others already mentioned.

    • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 年前

      cuir síoda ar ghabhar; is gabhar fós é

  • WorldwideCommunity@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 年前

    In Australia there’s “you can’t polish a turd”

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      We use this one also

    • Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 年前

      But you can roll it in glitter

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 年前

    In Danish we have “you can’t cut the hair off a bald guy”

    • mayo_cider [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 年前

      deleted by creator

  • very_well_lost@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 年前

    “You can’t put lipstick on a pig” was popular for about a year in the US, circa 2007

Asklemmy@lemmy.ml

asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !asklemmy@lemmy.ml

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

  • !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml
  • !fediverse@lemmy.ml
  • !selfhosted@lemmy.world

Looking for a community?

  • Lemmyverse: community search
  • sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
  • !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 440 users / day
  • 2.09K users / week
  • 6.35K users / month
  • 18.8K users / 6 months
  • 7 local subscribers
  • 49.2K subscribers
  • 4.34K Posts
  • 164K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • Evan@lemmy.ml
  • mekhos@lemmy.ml
  • tmpod@lemmy.pt
  • OrangeSlice@lemmy.ml
  • UI: unknown version
  • BE: 0.19.11
  • Modlog
  • Legal
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org