We at Apex Translation Services keep our eyes on language simply because it is a living entity. Expressions in English used four hundred or even two hundred years ago sound unfamiliar to our ears, and we’re not quite sure of their meaning. It is then, we head to our relations who number their advanced years in wisdom or advice attained (and who admittedly have heard just about everything) on what seems to us like something spoken in a galaxy far far away.
What IS that expression we hear bantered about so often? Oh, yes, “back in the day.” I always feel compelled to ask, “Which day is that? The fifth of June? Michaelmas? The twelfth of Never?”
Good question. Apex Translation Services will always ask the question necessary to understand the context of a document awaiting accurate translation. For the wealth of sayings in English alone, read the entertaining poem below by Sharon Bryan to understand language’s full complexity in the way English proverbs are exchanged, uttered, bellowed, communicated, directed, retorted, and reported:
Sweater Weather: A Love Song to Language
Sharon Bryan
Never better, mad as a hatter,
right as rain, might and main,
hanky panky, hot toddy,
hoity-toity, cold shoulder,
bowled over, rolling in clover,
low blow, no soap, hope
against hope, pay the piper,
liar liar pants on fire,
high and dry, shoo-fly pie,
fiddle-faddle, fit as a fiddle,
sultan of swat, muskrat
ramble, fat and sassy,
flimflam, happy as a clam,
cat’s pajamas, bee’s knees,
peas in a pod, pleased as punch,
pretty as a picture, nothing much,
lift the latch, double Dutch,
helter-skelter, hurdy-gurdy,
early bird, feathered friend,
dumb cluck, buck-up,
shilly-shally, willy-nilly,
roly-poly, holy moly,
loose lips sink ships,
spitting image, nip in the air,
hale and hearty, part and parcel,
upsy-dasiy, lazy days,
maybe baby, up to snuff,
flibbertigibbbet, honky-tonk,
spic and span, handyman,
cool as a cucumber, blue moon,
high as a kite, night and noon,
love me or leave, seventh heaven,
up and about, over and out.
Apex Translation Services knows the myriad outcomes of any or all these expressions. You’ll want Apex for your next translation project. We’ll ask the necessary questions. You’ll be assured those answers will appear in your next targeted document, courtesy of Apex Translation Services.
