IdiomDaily Life
Japanese
Japanese油を売る (Abura ouru)
Meaning: To slack off or dawdle when you should be working.
Literally: To sell oil
Example: “買い物に行ったまま、どこで油を売っているんだ。” — You went shopping ages ago; where have you been twiddling your thumbs?
English equivalent: To twiddle one's thumbs
Equivalents in other languages
Romanian: A freca menta Literally: To rub the mint
Italian: Stare con le mani in mano Literally: To stand with your hands in your hand
Russian: Бить баклуши (Bit' baklushi) Literally: To beat the baklushi
Filipino: Nagbibilang ng poste Literally: Counting the posts
French: Bayer aux corneilles Literally: To gape at the crows
English: twiddle one's thumbs
Origin: The usual explanation is the hair-oil sellers of the Edo period: their oil was thick and dripped slowly from the ladle into the customer's container, so they chatted with customers while waiting. To passers-by they seemed to be idling, and "selling oil" came to mean wasting time while at work. The story is traditional rather than documented.
More Japanese idioms
- 高嶺の花 (Takane no hana) Someone or something beautiful but utterly out of reach.
- 猫の額 (Neko no hitai) A very small space, especially of land.
- 腹が黒い (hara ga kuroi) Scheming and malicious behind a friendly face.
- お茶を濁す (ocha o nigosu) To dodge a question with a vague, evasive answer.
- 朝飯前 (Asameshi mae) A task so easy it can be done before eating.
- 二階から目薬 (Nikai kara megusuri) A roundabout effort that has no real effect.
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- Boketto Staring off into the distance with your mind pleasantly empty, thinking of nothing at all.
- Komorebi The dappled light that filters through leaves and scatters across the ground.
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