Mini language lesson #11: Hungarian food-oriented slang

Hungarians love to eat, we are real foodies and we love to cook, bake our specialties. Also, we’re quite proud of our national dishes. This love is so deep that we even use the names of certain ingredients, foods in slang expressions. So we thought we’d broaden your knowledge with the most commonly used food-oriented slang expressions.

Keep in mind that we are not linguists in any way, we’re just as dazzled by the curiosities of the Hungarian language as foreigners are. So this series doesn’t aim to explain the etymology of words, it’s more a fun take on our language. We try to bring Hungarian closer to you with witty learning cards made by Daily magyar, a language-enthusiast person, whose posts give an insight into the complexity of the Hungarian grammar. But don’t worry, it’s all done in an easy-going way, so that it can make learning fun.

The following list gives you an insight into how colourful the Hungarian language is. We actually use these expressions quite often, so this really is a helpful episode. You’ll impress everyone if you bust out any of the following food-oriented expressions 😉

perecelni ~ to pretzel (synonym: leesni; eltaknyolni; eltaccsolni) – to fall (down)
→ perec – pretzel
E.g.: “A Józsi tényleg perecelt az új mocijával?” – “Did Józsi really fall with his new motorbike?”
→ moci; motorbicikli – motorbike
→ Józsi, Jozsó, József, Joci, Jocó, Jóska – Joseph

kolbászolni ~ to sausage – walking around/about in a place with no specific destination; slowly moving to one direction
→ kolbász – sausage
E.g.: “Egész nap a városban kolbászoltam.” – “I was walking around town the whole day.”

rizsázni ~ to rice (synonym: hantázni; mellébeszélni) – to talk about irrelevant things; to talk beside the point; to waffle about/on something
→ rizsa, rizs – rice

lekenyerezni valakit ~ to bread someone down – to make someone satisfied/pleased by giving him/her something while you expect him/her to give you back something (to please someone)
lekenyerezés – appeasement
→ kenyér – bread

kukoricázni valakivel ~ to corn with someone (synonym: játszadozni valakivel) – to make fool of somebody
E.g.: when you have a smaller brother and you keep saying to him that if he does this and that to you (cleans your room; writes your homework) then you will give him some money, but in fact you never give him anything.
→ kukorica – corn

tejelni ~ to milk (synonym: fizetni) – to pay some money
→ tej – milk

kisajtolni ~ to cheese out – to take (away) some money from somebody by hitting them or using other methods to convince them that it is better if they give you their money
→ sajt – cheese

levajazni ~ to butter down (synonym: lezsírozni; lefizetni; megegyezni) – to make a deal; (to pay down).
→ vaj – butter
→ zsír – fat (not like “he is so fat”)

be lenni sózva ~ to be salted – be van sózva – he/she is antsy.
→ só – salt

paprikás a hangulata ~ to be in a paprika/pepper mood (synonym: mérges) – to be angry, peppery
→ paprika – pepper, paprika

be van csokizva ~ to be chocolatey (synonym: be van szarva, fél) – to be worried or even scared, frightened of something
→ csoki, csokoládé – chocolate

mákja van ~ to have poppy seed (synonym: szerencsés, malaca van) – to be lucky, fortunate
→ mák – poppy seed

tökölni ~ to squash – to waste time.
→ tök – pumpkin/squash or slang for male genital (18+)

megrépázni valakit (18+) ~ to carrot someone – to make sex with her
→ répa – carrot, beet
→ sárgarépa – carrot
→ fehérrépa, petrezselyem – parsley
→ cukorrépa – sugar beet
→ vadrépa – Daucus

megmogyorózni valakit (18+) ~ to hazelnut someone – to make sex with him
→ mogyoró – hazelnut, peanut

Featured image: www.budapesttravelling.com

Ce: bm

Source: Daily News Hungary