IdiomDaily Life
English
Englishnot to give a hoot
Meaning: Not to care at all.
Example: “He doesn't give a hoot what the neighbors think of his purple house.”
Origin: American: "hoot" had come to mean the tiniest amount by the late 19th century, and in 1912 a young Harry Truman wrote to his future wife that he did not "care a hoot" what she did with his letters.
Equivalents in other languages
German: Das ist mir Wurst Literally: That is sausage to me
Spanish: Importar un pepino Literally: To matter a cucumber
French: Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre Literally: It touches one of mine without moving the other
Italian: farsene un baffo Literally: To make oneself a mustache of it- French: N'en avoir cure Literally: To have no care of it
- French: S'en tamponner le coquillard Literally: To dab one's coquillard with it
- French: S'en moquer comme de l'an quarante Literally: To care about it as much as about the year forty
More English idioms
- get back on one's feet To recover after an illness or a setback.
- not sleep a wink To not sleep at all.
- work oneself into a lather To become very agitated, anxious or angry.
- avoid like the plague To stay as far away as possible from someone or something.
- lay it on thick To exaggerate, especially praise or flattery, far too much.
- stake one's life on it To be absolutely certain that something is true.
Explore another collection: False Friends
Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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