Want to spice up your language? Use some Hungarian sayings!

Every language has its own unique elements, like proverbs or sayings. Hungarian is not an exception either; the language itself is full of expressive and poignant sentences used on a daily basis that, translated to another language, sound quite strange and definitely very funny. With the help of the Instagram page @hungariandictionary, let us take a look at some of these proverbs and sayings, their mirror translations, and their meanings – all related to animals.

Every country, every city, and every village, back in the old days as well, had their own smart people whose intelligent sayings became well-known by their village, then the county, and finally, by the whole country, and even proceeded to be commonly used. In those days, when there were no phones to text our friends and families or internet and Instagram to upload what is currently happening to us, everything was said but not written down. Sayings and proverbs passed from generation to generation, so in most cases, it is impossible to say where and when they were first used.

Proverbs were formed step by step when these smart people told their smart observations to others and in public, and from time to time they proved to be right. They are usually short, widely-known sentences that state a general truth or a useful piece of knowledge about life.

Sayings are connections of words that make our language more colourful, where the meaning of the individual elements does not reflect the meaning of the whole saying. They are usually not a complete sentence. Most of the time, we do not know their origins, just the meaning.

If we randomly look at a list of Hungarian sayings or proverbs, we can find a lot involving some kind of animal. The reason for this is the lifestyle of the old Hungarians. They lived in villages and in the countryside for a very long time, traditionally sharing their living space with all kinds of household animals, such as dogs, horses, pigs, or geese. Naturally, they spent a lot of time with them, and thus they were a crucial element of their conversations as well, so animals became a part of their sayings.

We have collected a short list of Hungarian sayings including an animal with their current meaning, their original meaning, and their literal, mostly very funny English translations.  
We encourage you to incorporate them into your life and teach them to your friends as well.

Ordít, mint a fába szorult féreg. – Shouts like a worm stuck inside a tree. 
We use this saying when someone shouts or screams very loudly, but actually, the original meaning has nothing to do with a worm or a tree. Worm is actually an old word for wolf, and the tree refers to a trap they prepared for wolves. The animal naturally started screaming and whining very loudly from the pain when it got trapped, and later, when people heard someone being that loud, they referred back to the wolf.