long time no see
Meaning: A friendly greeting to someone one has not seen for a long time.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “"Long time no see! How was Australia?"”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Its broken grammar suggests a pidgin origin. It is often said to imitate Chinese Pidgin English or to come from early American writing mimicking Native American speech, with examples from around 1900, but the exact source is uncertain.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Ça fait un bail — literally: That makes a lease
More idioms — Daily Life
- a Judas kiss — An act of apparent friendship that hides betrayal.
- the ball is in your court — It is now your turn to act or decide.
- all hands on deck — Everyone is needed to help right now.
- pick holes in — To find small faults in something, often unfairly.
- take someone down a peg — To make an arrogant person more humble.
- you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy — People keep the habits and character of where they grew up.
More English idioms
- a banana republic — A small, politically unstable country dominated by a corrupt elite or foreign business.
- go under the knife — To have a surgical operation.
- go to Canossa — To humble oneself and submit to an opponent.
- a captain of industry — A powerful business leader who runs a major company.
- the bigger they are, the harder they fall — The more powerful someone is, the worse their downfall.
- a day late and a dollar short — Too late and not enough to be useful.