No tener pelos en la lengua
Meaning: To speak very bluntly and honestly.
Language: Spanish
Literally: To have no hairs on the tongue
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The tongue has long stood as a symbol of cultivated, careful speech, and the image of hairs growing on it works as an imagined physical obstacle — something that would genuinely get in the way of speaking cleanly and freely. "Not having" that obstacle came to mean speaking without any hesitation or self-censorship, however blunt or uncomfortable the result. The exact date of the phrase's coinage isn't documented, though it's generally associated with the Spanish Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries, a period when Spanish idiom and proverb collections were being actively compiled and written down for the first time.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Appeler un chat un chat — literally: To call a cat a cat
- Norwegian: Å snakke rett fra leveren — literally: To speak straight from the liver
- Italian: Non avere peli sulla lingua — literally: To have no hairs on your tongue
- English: call a spade a spade
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Tomar el pelo — To pull someone's leg; to tease.
- Avere le braccine corte — To be stingy; to never reach for the check.
- Empurrar com a barriga — To procrastinate; to keep delaying something.
- Τρώω τα νύχια μου — I'm extremely anxious and impatient.
- Casser les pieds à quelqu'un — To annoy or bore someone greatly.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be extremely lazy.
More Spanish idioms
- Ser pan comido — To be extremely easy.
- Dar calabazas — To reject someone romantically.
- Estar como una cabra — To be completely crazy.
- Tirar la casa por la ventana — To spare no expense; to go all out.
- Meter la pata — To make a blunder or put your foot in it.
- Ponerse las botas — To stuff yourself with food or to profit greatly.
From our untranslatable words
- Puente — The day taken off to 'bridge' a midweek public holiday to the weekend, turning it into a…
- Vergüenza ajena — The squirming embarrassment felt on behalf of another person, who may be entirely untroub…
- Sobremesa — The unhurried conversation that lingers long after a meal, when no one wants to leave the…