I just had a brain-fart while speaking to the Wifeoid-type device.
She phoned me up and said, "I'm afraid you're not going to see me tonight, I have to go in and work a late shift. My colleague has fallen off her horse."
Now, remember that I'm a Brit married to a Swede. For some bizarre reason - let's say it was misfiring psynapses - I thought this was a Swedish euphemism for someone having a nervous breakdown.
Anyway, we carried on talking about what times she's working, and then I followed-up on the original reason. "So, what happened? Did she just have a breakdown, gone mental?"
Silence for a few seconds.
"What?" asks Linda.
"Well, you said she fell off her horse. Is that some sort of way of saying she's had a breakdown?"
"... No. No, no, no. No, silly. She owns a horse and physically fell off it!"
The penny dropped and I laughed embarrassingly at my inept Brian (who, you recall, lives in a Petri dish by the front door).
Still, you've got to admit, "Falling off one's horse" is a great euphemism for a breakdown, no? I think we need to make it a regular saying.
3 comments:
Actually, "having fallen of ones horse" IS a proverb in Dutch..
It means "having lost ones position" though.
Ah, interesting... I _knew_ that it must be a proverb somewhere! And it makes sense, losing one's position... I would still like the (confused) Swedish one though ;)
Mastering Swedish lesson 6 - euphemism xD
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