snak fra de varme lande
English translation: lame excuse
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| 13:00 Dec 2, 2014 |
| Danish to English translations [PRO] Idioms / Maxims / Sayings | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Marianne Sorensen Denmark Local time: 01:33 | ||||||
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| 4 | half-told story |
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| 3 | a long rigmarole |
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| 2 +1 | song and dance |
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| 3 | that's a likely story |
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| 1 | blarney |
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| Discussion entries: 11 | |
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Answers
18 hrs confidence: 
blarney Explanation: Just thought I'd throw this into the mix: http://goireland.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/irish_blarne... |
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19 hrs confidence:
a long rigmarole Explanation: Just another thought A long, rambling story or statement: ‘she went into a long rigmarole about the different jobs she’d had’ http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/rigmaro... ´The tale of the old iron pot´ was an expression my father (from Bristol) used in my now distant childhood, but I can´t find any examples of it in that sense, and have not heard it for a long time. |
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9 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1song and dance Explanation: Just a suggestion, song being the common word. It is defined as "an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse". -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day27 mins (2014-12-03 13:27:38 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- What about "a long song and a slow dance"? just to give it a bit more laadidaaadidaaa... |
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1 day 5 hrs confidence:
that's a likely story Explanation: in my part of the world (Essex, London and the South East of England), this would be a good fit. I may receive some disagreement naturally. It is always said in a sarcastic and often sullen tone. Also, it is often shortened to "Likely story". If you google you will find a plethora of contextual examples. Hope this is of help. Reference: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/A+likely+story Reference: http://www.ihbristol.com/english-phrases/example/2012-12-23 |
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46 mins confidence:
| snak fra de varme lande (sang fra de varme lande) half-told story Explanation: It is not snak but song - en sang fra de varme lande. And it does not mean something between nonsense and bullshit, but some kind of explanation or lame excuse that is absolutely not the truth. I don't know about the origin of the saying. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2014-12-02 14:38:53 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Okay, Charles, but I just found 'something between nonsense and bullshit' to be a very broad definition compared to the one I offered as bullshit doesn't necessarily have to be evasive. It can also be a way of using boastful language etc. Regarding the saying - a lot of sayings or idioms are misunderstood by speakers and there are plenty of examples of the results to be found on Google. But even if the source file says 'snak' it doesn't really matter as you can't translate this literally. Now you force me to switch from my smartphone to pc to look it up in sheer stubborness in order to prove my case :-) You can look the saying up in: http://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=land You will find the saying listed and explained in Den Danske Ordbog. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2014-12-02 14:57:44 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- How about 'fanciful excuses' - or 'fanciful explanations'? Includes the bullshit aspect too :-) -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 days (2014-12-14 14:06:55 GMT) Post-grading -------------------------------------------------- Tak for point, Charles! |
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