Un-hobbity sayings
Jul. 3rd, 2005 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerWhen writing hobbitfic, I always have to have my radar out for phrases that are second nature to me, but would be completely inappropriate in a Middle-earth context, and most especially a hobbit context. I try to keep my eyes open, but sometimes things slip through and then I have to fix them.
For example: If you were referring to someone suddenly taking off and running, you might instinctively say "they were off like a shot", but it would be wrong because there are no guns. So I substitute either "like an arrow from the bow" or "like a stone from a sling" or "like one of Gandalf's rockets". But sometimes I am stumped. So here are some common sayings that I have had to delete either mentally or literally. I'd love to hear some "hobbity equivalents" for them:
-"waiting for the other shoe to drop"
-"walk a mile in his shoes"
-"the shoe is on the other foot now"
-"don't rock the boat" (okay for a Bucklander, but not for other hobbits)
-"take the wind out of his sails"
-"up the creek/river without a paddle" (again, Bucklanders maybe)
-"on the wrong side of the tracks"
-"get to first base"
-"like a jolt of electicity" or even "electrified"
-"not the brightest bulb in the package"
-"another day, another dollar"
-"out like a light" (okay, I know there are other kinds of lights besides electric, but let's face it, electric lights are the image this conveys)
-"he had his own agenda"
-"lit up like Christmas"
There are a lot of others, but these are just the ones that have popped into my head.
Any ideas?
For example: If you were referring to someone suddenly taking off and running, you might instinctively say "they were off like a shot", but it would be wrong because there are no guns. So I substitute either "like an arrow from the bow" or "like a stone from a sling" or "like one of Gandalf's rockets". But sometimes I am stumped. So here are some common sayings that I have had to delete either mentally or literally. I'd love to hear some "hobbity equivalents" for them:
-"waiting for the other shoe to drop"
-"walk a mile in his shoes"
-"the shoe is on the other foot now"
-"don't rock the boat" (okay for a Bucklander, but not for other hobbits)
-"take the wind out of his sails"
-"up the creek/river without a paddle" (again, Bucklanders maybe)
-"on the wrong side of the tracks"
-"get to first base"
-"like a jolt of electicity" or even "electrified"
-"not the brightest bulb in the package"
-"another day, another dollar"
-"out like a light" (okay, I know there are other kinds of lights besides electric, but let's face it, electric lights are the image this conveys)
-"he had his own agenda"
-"lit up like Christmas"
There are a lot of others, but these are just the ones that have popped into my head.
Any ideas?
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 08:56 am (UTC)As to "nerves": the word "nerves" certainly pre-dates the discovery of the nervous system, though its meaning would be restricted to using it in the sense of "nervous" as in agitated, and not in the sense of "nerve endings". I *hate* that bit in the PJ TT where Gimli comes out with "he has my ax imbedded in his nervous system". Yuck! *Very* inappropriate use of language.
"Agenda" just sounds *way* too modern. I am sure they had some set order of doing things, but that would simply not be a word I could imagine them using. And "agenda" in the sense of an ulterior motive, as that saying implies, is *definitely* too modern.