‘And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.’ – from Maskerade by Terry Pratchett.
‘And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.’ – from Maskerade by Terry Pratchett.
I knew about the honor-culture bit, but I’m now curious about what other languages use it as an insult.
I actually might be able to provide some insight to this. My wife is Balkan and the first time I called her a “Silly Goose” she became madly upset. It turns out in her language the phrase “Glupova Gusko” (Stupid Goose) is a common insult. It is considered incredibly harsh in her culture. My guess is that the phrase “Silly Goose” is borrowed from a Slavic Language and lost its harshness when it moved into English.
These fall under the category of “Half-baked Idea”. This includes any idea that obviously hasn’t been thought all the way through. Half-baked ideas can range from the absurd (e.g. “The Earth is flat.”), to the benignly optimistic (e.g. “Everything works out for the best.”)
Depends on which philosophy you ascribe to I suppose. While standard Judeo-Christian philosophy would most likely dismiss the notion of divine orangutans, I for one would posit that orangutans by thier very nature are divine and that humans may in fact be the only creatures on the planet that must struggle toward divinity.
Translation: “We refuse to bring Michael Kirkbride back to the project.”