“Not mince one's words”in other languages

Same idea, different pictures

Two languages refuse to soften words like food. English won't mince them and French won't chew them, ne pas mâcher ses mots. Polish won't wrap them in cotton, bez owijania w bawełnę.

Italian and Spanish have no hairs on the tongue, non avere peli sulla lingua, no tener pelos en la lengua. Norwegian speaks straight from the liver, rett fra leveren, once thought the seat of the emotions. French calls a cat a cat, appeler un chat un chat, made famous by the poet Boileau in 1666. English calls a spade a spade, which goes back to a Greek saying about calling a trough a trough; a translation slip by Erasmus turned the trough into a spade.

French can also skip the four roads, ne pas y aller par quatre chemins: go straight to the point.