IdiomAnimals
Arabic
Arabicتمخض الجبل فولد فأرا (tamakhaḍa al-jabalu fa-walada fa'ran)
Meaning: A huge fuss producing a tiny result.
Literally: The mountain went into labor and gave birth to a mouse
Example: “شهور من الاجتماعات وانتهت بتغيير لون الشعار؛ تمخض الجبل فولد فأرا.” — Months of meetings ended in a new logo color: much ado about nothing.
English equivalent: Much ado about nothing
Equivalents in other languages
French: La montagne accouche d'une souris Literally: The mountain gives birth to a mouse
English: much ado about nothing
Origin: From a fable told by Aesop and made famous by the Roman poet Horace in his Ars Poetica (around 19 BC): parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus, "the mountains will labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be born." Arabic took the image over word for word, for a great fuss that produces a laughably small result.
More Arabic idioms
- يضرب في حديد بارد (yadrib fi hadid barid) To waste effort on a hopeless task.
- القرد بعين أمه غزال (al-qird bi-ʿayn ummihi ghazāl) Parents see their children as beautiful no matter what.
- اللي ما يعرف الصقر يشويه (illi ma yaʿrif al-ṣaqr yishwīh) Failing to recognize something valuable and destroying it.
- على قد لحافك مد رجليك (ʿalā qadd liḥāfik midd rijlayk) Live within your means.
- رمى بنفسه في التهلكة (ramā bi-nafsihi fī at-tahluka) Someone deliberately puts themselves in danger or a hopeless situation through recklessne…
- أكل العيش والملح مع شخص (Akal al-'aysh wal-milh ma'a shakhs) Shared intimate bond or deep friendship forged through shared hardship and simple living…
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- Tienes menos luces que un barco pirata You're really not the brightest.
- Eres más lento que el caballo del malo You're painfully slow — the villain's horse never catches the hero.
- Testa di rapa A blockhead who isn't thinking.
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