ศาลาชุมนุม

[David and Bui]

Friends,

English is rich in similes, metaphors and idioms involving animals, such as, "the fox in the hen house"; "a wolf in sheep's clothing"; "smart like a fox"; "the fog comes on little cat feet"; "the elephant in the room"; "the moose on the table"; "jump the shark"; "codpiece"; "to tuna radio"; "to do something just for the halibut"; and, so many more.

Thai, likewise, is rich in animal references. Let's just look at a few of these:

1. พูดงู ๆ ปลา ๆ - "to speak only the very rudiments of a language"
2. ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตน - "to use an inordinate amount of effort or force to accomplish a small objective."
3. ดูช้างให้ดูหาง ดูนางให้ดูแม่ - "Like mother, like daughter."
4. ปลาขึ้นบก - "like a fish out of water" (ผิดที่ผิดถิ่น)
5. เสือสิงห์กระทิงแรด - "wily, old jackals; tough negotiators;experienced con men"
6. เสือนอนกิน - "independently wealthy person; person living off investments"
7. เสือกระดาษ - "paper tiger"
8. แมงดา - "pimp, gigolo"

Can you think of any others?

[mangkorn]

Edited to add Western equivalents:

ซนเหมือนลิง - (Mischievous as a monkey)

ขยันเหมือนมด - (Diligent as an ant)

โง่เหมือนควาย - (Stupid as stone)

แมลงเม่าบินเข้ากองไฟ - (Like moths to a flame)

[Rick Bradford]

กาเข้าฝูงกา หงส์เข้าฝูงหงส์ = Birds of a feather flock together.
เข้าฝูงหงส์ก็เป็นหงส์ เข้าฝูงกาก็เป็นกา = Who keeps the company with the wolf will learn to howl.
ช้างสาร งูเห่า ข้าเก่า เมียรัก อย่าได้ไว้ใจนัก = Never trust a sleeping dog, a swearing Jew, a praying drunkard, or a weeping woman
ดูช้างให้ดูหาง ดูนางให้ดูแม่ - Like mother, like daughter
ตีวัวกระทบคราด = Beat the dog before the lion.

[mangkorn]

If the thread is meant to also include proverbs, the list could go into the hundreds.

A few common ones invoking just tigers:

ใจดีสู้เสือ
ชาติเสือไม่ทิ้งลาย
หน้าเนื้อใจเสือ
เสือซ่อนเล็บ
หนีเสือปะจระเข้

Not sure if those would be categorized along with similes, though.

[Rick Bradford]

Ah, sorry, I saw the word 'idiom' in the OP, and thought ....

[David and Bui]

My thought? Include them all! Similes, metaphors, idioms, proverbs, sayings are all welcome.

[tod-daniels]

Rick, I think the idiomatic expression กาเข้าฝูงกา หงส์เข้าฝูงหงส์ carries a much more "class oriented" meaning than the English "birds of a feather" one... I believe it draws parallels to social standing. From reading the idioms it appears that the Thais have a thing for the กา's and the หงส์'s as comparatives in regards to one's social status. One more I found which further illustrates the class-ism is กาจะมาเปรียบพญาหงส์ – ผู้ต้อยต่ำไม่อาจเปรีบกับผู้สูงส่ง

When thai kids are playing a little too boisterously in say a food court or some other public place where that kind of play is frowned upon, I've heard Thais say to them, "อย่าซนยังกะลิง". . . I think in English (at least when I was growing up way back when) it's close to the meaning of what my grandmother would say when we were a little outta hand, "Stop runnin' around like little Indians!"

I found both กุลาบริมทาง and ดอกไม้ใกล้ทาง with the meaning หญิงใจง่าย. I found ไก่อ้อน for someone who is inexperienced in the way things are.

Because Thais have no reticence talking about bodily functions (as opposed to westerners) I totally luv some of their idioms. Scared sh*tless - ขี้หดตดหาย or ขี้ขึ้นไปอยู่บนหัว, ขี้ขึ้นสมอง.. When something happens really fast, it's ตดไม่ทันหายเหม็น. Another one I'm tryin' is ตดก่อนขี้ which is บุคลที่ชอบพูดอวดตัวให้คนอื่นฟังโดยที่ตนเองยังไม่ได้ลงมือทำ almost like an "armchair quarterback" or nowadays a “Google expert”. Their stingy ones aren't bad either ขี้ไม่ให้หมากิน wouldn’t feed his own sh*t to a dog. The ever popular ขี้หมูราขี้หมาแห้ง for เรื่องไร้สาระ or a "cock and bull story"...
I like ไม่ใช่ขี้ไก่ - isn't chicken sh*t and use it a lot when someone isn't quite paying enough attention to what I want or what I'm asking them. เรื่องนี้มันไม่ใช่ขี้ไก่ - This ain't a small thing..

Not surprising there are a TON of idioms which relate to eating;
กินแกงเมื่อร้อน – almost exactly a match for “strike while the iron is hot”
กินเหมื่อนแมวดม – กินน้อยมาก
กินเป็นจระเข้ – eat like a crocodile (wolf down the food w/out tasting it)
กินเผื่อหมา – กินมากจนอวก (eat until you puke)
กินเมีย - มีเมียกี่คน ๆ ก็ตายจากไปก่อนหมด
กินเส้น and it's opposite ไม่กินเส้น get along well/don't get along well

I like the idiomatic expressions which equate color (light/dark) to someone's behavior or character;
ดำเหมือนอีกา - black as a crow
ขาวเหมือนปุยฝ้าย - white as a cotton ball (pure as the driven snow)

In talking to the Thais Soi side it would appear these comparatives are not about a person's complexion (light or dark). I found IF you put ผิว in front of either idiom it does warp the meaning towards a comparative in complexion but they have their own about that too; ดำตับเป็ด, ดำเป็นดินปืน, ดำเป็นเหนี่ยง - black as chicken liver, black as gunpowder, black as a diving beetle... Along with; ขาวราวกับหยวก, ขาวเหมื่อนสำลี and ขาวเป็นวอก - white as the pith of a banana tree, white as a cotton ball and lastly white as something which I haven't quite worked out yet. . .

Their lazy idioms are good too ขี้เกียจเหมื่อนแมลงวัน, ขี้เกียจจนตัวขึ้นขน, ขี้เกียจสันหลังยาว - lazy as a house fly, lazy until you grow fur on your body, lazy to the point your spine lengthens from lyin' around.

Quite honestly, I have found studying the books I have on idioms and expressions in Thai are the most enjoyable time I've spent studying this language in the last 5 years!

Sorry for the rambly long post..

[David and Bui]

And, the particularly gruesome "เชือดไก่ให้ลิงดู" (to exact public punishment on someone; cause fear among the public by singling out a few for punishment)

[keith]

Friends,

English is rich in similes, metaphors and idioms involving animals, such as, "the fox in the hen house"; "a wolf in sheep's clothing"; "smart like a fox"; "the fog comes on little cat feet"; "the elephant in the room"; "the moose on the table"; "jump the shark"; "codpiece"; "to tuna radio"; "to do something just for the halibut"; and, so many more.

David, I too love reading and learning Thai idioms etc. Though my knowledge of Thai is not advanced enough to add much to the general thread. I was interested though, in some of the US English phrases that you quoted. Though most seem to be easily understandable, I am puzzled by:-
"jump the shark";
"to tuna radio"; I suppose this is just a word play on "tune a"
but I dont think you can include "codpiece"
codpiece (n.) mid-15c., "a bagged appendage to the front of the breeches; often conspicuous" [OED], from Old English codd "a bag, pouch, husk," in Middle English, "testicles" (common Germanic, cf. Old Norse koddi "pillow," Dutch kodde "bag") + piece (n.).

Sorry to seem "nit-picking" A really interesting thread

[David and Bui]

David, I too love reading and learning Thai idioms etc. Though my knowledge of Thai is not advanced enough to add much to the general thread. I was interested though, in some of the US English phrases that you quoted. Though most seem to be easily understandable, I am puzzled by:-
"jump the shark";
"to tuna radio"; I suppose this is just a word play on "tune a"
but I dont think you can include "codpiece"
codpiece (n.) mid-15c., "a bagged appendage to the front of the breeches; often conspicuous" [OED], from Old English codd "a bag, pouch, husk," in Middle English, "testicles" (common Germanic, cf. Old Norse koddi "pillow," Dutch kodde "bag") + piece (n.).

Sorry to seem "nit-picking" A really interesting thread

Good question! "Jump the shark" is an Americanism of recent vintage. See http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... he%20shark

As for the others you mentioned, I wanted to see if anyone was paying attention. The tuna and the cod? Totally bogus. "Doing something just for the halibut" is yet another bad pun.