IdiomDaily Life
Russian
RussianГол как сокол (Gol kak sokol)
Meaning: Dirt poor; without a thing to your name.
Literally: Bare as a falcon
Example: “После ремонта я гол как сокол.” — After the renovation I'm flat broke.
English equivalent: Flat broke
Equivalents in other languages
Italian: Essere al verde Literally: To be at the green
English: flat broke
French: Fauché comme les blés Literally: Mown like the wheat
Origin: The сокол here is not the falcon but an old battering ram, as Fedorov's phrase dictionary explains, citing Sergey Maximov's Крылатые слова (1899): a perfectly smooth log or cast-iron bar hung on chains and swung against walls. Гол meant both bare and poor, so "bare as the ram" is having nothing at all. Pushkin uses the phrase in Dubrovsky (1833).
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