A couple of figures of speech from Mexico that I find equally nonsensical:
Simón: Means yes.
Nelson: Means no.
Mátala(o) (kill it): to finish a drink or a snack.
Jalar (pull): To go somewhere or agree to a plan. You may also hear its long form “¿jalas o te pandeas?” (do you pull or do you bend?) meaning “are you coming or not?”.
¿Se va hacer o no se va a hacer la carnita asada? (Are we doing or not the carne asada?): It means “Is the plan still on?”
Chapulinear: There’s no literal translation for this one but I guess it would be like “grasshopper-ing”. It means seducing a friend’s partner.
Tirando el perro (throwing the dog): Flirting.
Arma la vaca (build the cow): Gathering money for a small collective purchase.
Huele a gas (Smells like gas): To leave. That’s kind of like an advanced figure of speech because it comes from Fuga, which in and of itself is a figure of speech meaning “to leave quickly”. It literally translates to “leak”, as in a gas line leak, because you’re supposed to leave in a way that mimics gas leaking from a pipe. So, when we need to leave but not as quickly, we don’t say “leak”, we say “smells like gas” implying there might be a leak.
Here’s a modern one:
Quesadilla: Means “that’s so sad” because it sounds like Qué sad (illa)
A couple of figures of speech from Mexico that I find equally nonsensical:
Simón: Means yes.
Nelson: Means no.
Mátala(o) (kill it): to finish a drink or a snack.
Jalar (pull): To go somewhere or agree to a plan. You may also hear its long form “¿jalas o te pandeas?” (do you pull or do you bend?) meaning “are you coming or not?”.
¿Se va hacer o no se va a hacer la carnita asada? (Are we doing or not the carne asada?): It means “Is the plan still on?”
Chapulinear: There’s no literal translation for this one but I guess it would be like “grasshopper-ing”. It means seducing a friend’s partner.
Tirando el perro (throwing the dog): Flirting.
Arma la vaca (build the cow): Gathering money for a small collective purchase.
Huele a gas (Smells like gas): To leave. That’s kind of like an advanced figure of speech because it comes from Fuga, which in and of itself is a figure of speech meaning “to leave quickly”. It literally translates to “leak”, as in a gas line leak, because you’re supposed to leave in a way that mimics gas leaking from a pipe. So, when we need to leave but not as quickly, we don’t say “leak”, we say “smells like gas” implying there might be a leak.
Here’s a modern one:
Quesadilla: Means “that’s so sad” because it sounds like Qué sad (illa)
I knew a girl who tiraba el perro al novio de su amiga, so I guess she also was trying to chapulinear xD