Aesthetic/cute idioms
My personal selection of idioms collected here and there. Inspired by this post by @rmscarpathia - my posts - resources masterpost | aesthetic idioms | words with cute literal meaning
Japanese 🇯🇵
- 木漏れ日 Komorebi - The sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees. 🌳 🌞
- 鏡花水月 Kyōka suigetsu - Flower in the mirror & a moon in the water 🌸 🌙 : something which is visible and cannot be touched as well as the profound beauty of poems that cannot be described in words.
- 花笑み Hanaemi - flowering smile/ the smile of flowers 💐: old Japanese, a smile as beautiful as blooming flowers, calling people to feel happy.
- 浮世 Ukiyo - The floating world - depicts a place of fleeting beauty and living in the moment, without worries. It described the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of the Edo-period Japan (1600–1867)
Chinese 🇨🇳
- 海誓山盟 Hǎi shì shān méng - The promises of mountains and vows of seas 🏔 🌊 : A proverb of eternal love.
- 日三 秋 yí rì sān qiū 🍁🍁🍁- One day, three autumns: when you intensely long for and miss someone, one day feels like three years.
Swedish 🇸🇪
- Mångata - moon road 🌙 🛣The glimmering,roadlile reflection of moonlight on a river. see also Hungarian 🇭🇺 Aranyhíd - The golden bridge 🌞 🌁: A term for the reflection of the sun as it shines on water and can literally be translated to.
- Gökotta - Dawn picnic to hear the first birdsong 🎶 (gök=cuckoo), Swedish tradition which often takes place around Ascension Day in late May or early June.
- Smultronstället - Place of wild strawberries 🍓: a special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress or sadness
- Mellan hägg och syrén - the time Between Bird Cherry and Lilac: corresponds to försommar (pre-summer). The expression is said to originate from a cobbler’s sign saying his shop was closed “mellan hägg och syren”.
- Att vara blåögd - to be blue eyed: to be naive =🇩🇪 blauäugig
Norwegian 🇳🇴
- Å leve på luft og kjærlighed - live on air and love: to be so madly in love you don’t think about anything else
- gjensynsglede - see-again-happiness: feeling of joy, anticipation, love you experience when you are about to meet someone you haven’t seen in a long time.
- Det er bare blåbær - It’s just blueberries 🫐: Expression, meaning something is simple, or something is only a minor issue.
Danish 🇩🇰
- det er fest og farver 🎉🟥🟨🟦- it’s party and colors: A lively and festive mood or way of living
Finnish 🇫🇮 @suomipaskea @depressingfinland
- Kaiho - hopeless longing: an involuntary solitude in which one feels incomleteness and yearns for something unattainable or extremely difficult and tedious to attain.
- luonnonlapsi - nature’s child 🌿: a genuine and sincere person who’s carefree and down to earth, a scatterbrained, someone who doesn’t care about the ways of society. Slightly negative but in an endearing way [- @evelhak]
- siirtyä ajasta ikuisuuteen/iäisyyteen / potkaista tyhjää- went from time to eternity / kicked the emptiness: said about someone who has died
- Olla hyvällä tuulella— To be on / To have a good wind 🌬: To have a good mood. To be mildly happy.
- oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka 🍓🫐-our land strawberry, other land blueberry: there’s no place like home
German 🇩🇪 This post with additions of @germanenthusiast
- Etwas durch die Blume sagen 🗣️🌼- to say smth thorugh the flower: used when conveying something dramatic in a gentle or roundabout way
- Habseligkeiten: have-holy-things: individual possessions that might be seen as useless/of little value, but regarded as valuable treasures
- Fingerspitzengefühl - fingertips-feeling: good skill in handling things/ sensitivity and empathy
- Sehnsucht - longing-search: intense inner longing for somebody, something or a place
- Weltschmerz - world pain: gratuitous melancholia / kind of feeling experienced by someone who believes that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind / the feeling of anxiety caused by the ills of the world
- Zeitgeist - spirit of the time: the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of the members of a society in a particular period in time
- Engelsgeduld 👼- angel’s patience: a lot of patience
- Schokoladenseite - chocolate side 🍫: refers to your better side (e.g. when taking a photo) sich von seiner Schokoladenseite zeigen (to show oneself from one’s chocolate side) = to show oneself at one’s best
- Sich aufbrezeln - to bretzel oneself up 🥨: get all dressed up
- Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen - freedom, joy and omelette 🥞: everything’s hunky-dory
- sich freuen wie ein Schneekönig 🤴❄️ /Honigkuchenpferd 🍯🍰 🐴 - to be happy like a snow king/honey cake horse: to be very very happy
Dutch 🇳🇱 @docnederlands
- uitwaaien 🌬️ 🌳 - to go out in windy weather, particularly into nature or a park, as a means of refreshing oneself and clearing one's mind
- over koetjes en kalfjes praten - talking about cows and calves 🐄: smalltalk
- kalverliefde - calf love 🐮: A word for the temporary affection and infatuation usually experienced by two young people in love.
- De bloemetjes buiten zetten, to put the flowers outside 💐: to have lots of fun
Italian 🇮🇹 this by @sectioavrea
- Se son rose fioriranno, If it’s roses, they will bloom 🌹 : if something is bound to happen, it will
- all’acqua di rose - blanded with rose water: used when something is very moderate
- Non è tutto rose e fiori - it’s not all roses and flowers 🌹💐 : it’s not all nice and perfect (as you think it is)
- il sole bacia i belli - The sun kisses the beautiful 🌞: said to someone who complains about sitting in the sun
- baciato dalla fortuna - kissed by luck 🍀💋: to be very lucky
- Ragazza acqua e sapone - soap&water girl 🧼 the girl next door, with a natural look
- Avere l’argento vivo addosso - to have quicksilver on your body: to be energetic, active, lively. Often used for kids
- Spaesato(m)/spaesata(f) -out of (one’s) country/native place “mis-country-ed”: to be bewildered, disoriented, confused
- Sognare ad occhi aperti 👁️ - To dream with open eyes: to daydream
- essere al settimo cielo ☁️ - to be at the seventh Heaven: to be over the moon, see 🇫🇷 below
French 🇫🇷
- Être aux anges 👼👼- be where angels are
- Être fleure bleue 🌼🔷- to be a blue flower: be sentimental to the point of naivety [apparently from an expression by the German author Novalis]
English
- Serendipity: an unplanned fortunate discovery
- Apple of my eye 🍎👁️ - 🇮🇹 Luce dei miei occhi (light of my eyes) 🇩🇪 Licht meines Lebens (light of my life)
Greek 🇬🇷
- petrichor: the earthly scent produced when rain falls on dry soil 🌧️ . from πέτρος pétros (stone) + ἰχώρ īchṓr (the fluid that flows in the veins of gods in Greek mythology)
- Phosphene - light-appear: a sensation of a ring, stars or spot of light caused by rubbing your eyes ⭐️ 👁️
🇻🇳 In Vietnamese, “to miss someone is the same as “to remember someone“. So to ask “do you miss me?” You’ll say Do you remember me?
🇮🇷 in Farsi, to answer to a compliment you say “it’s your eyes that are beautiful”
Idioms found among others through: @mylanguagesblogger, @wonderful-language-sounds @thenoaidi
🌼 started: spring ‘20, posted: march ‘23, last updated: 20.4.2023