In almost every country there is a saying about animals. Someone says "happy as a clam", and someone - "eats like a bird." If you are familiar with these phrases, you will probably immediately understand what they mean. But have you ever wondered if they are really true? Do birds really eat little? Some idioms are true, like "like a fish without water." Others are quite controversial. Let's take a look at such expressions from different languages and find out how things really are.
Blind as a Bat
In fact, bats are not blind at all; they have no vision problems at all. Their peculiarity is not in this, but in an incredibly acute hearing. This provides them with the ability to echolocate or orientate using ultrasound. Bats are nocturnal, so vision does not really matter to them - perhaps that is why this myth appeared. In part, it may be due to the fact that these creatures have long been perceived as something repulsive and anomalous - on such soil stereotypes quickly arise.
Sweet as a beetle's ear
This English expression is rather unusual. Many people, perhaps, will not argue that bugs are not too cute, on the contrary, many of them are quite repulsive. Do they have cute ears? In fact, they have no ears at all. Insects' apparatus for sensing sound are constructed differently. For example, in grasshoppers, they are located on the stomach. Perhaps such a phraseological unit appeared due to the fact that in English the words "cute" and "sharp" sound similar - it was just that insects have a keen hearing. This is true, they perfectly distinguish sounds of different frequencies, even very quiet ones.
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Eats like a bird
If you really ate like a bird, you would consume at least a quarter of your body weight daily. This does not quite match the meaning of this idiom, which compares a person who is picky in food and has a modest appetite to a bird. Birds eat very differently, they consume a wide range of insects, nectar and other foods, feeding throughout the day. Some insectivorous birds catch beetles every two seconds. The amount of food is determined by the size of the bird - large birds eat a quarter of their body weight, and small ones - about half. There are also hummingbirds that eat twice as much as they weigh every day! This is because they expend a lot of energy during the flight.
Happy as a clam
This expression appeared in America in the early nineteenth century and was especially common in the northeast. You won't see a smile on the sink. What is the point? The fact is that initially the expression was longer, "happy as a clam at high tide." The point is that when the tide is high, people cannot easily find shellfish in the sand and eat them, so this moment is happier for them than ebb tide.
Crazy as a Loon
Unhappy loons - people say about them that they are crazy. In fact, absolutely everything is in order with them - these are ordinary water birds that love to hunt in lakes and usually live in northern climates. They are quite beautiful creatures with a bright white and black feather pattern. In winter, the color of the plumage changes to grayish. They can fly at an incredible speed of over one hundred kilometers per hour, and they also dive and fish beautifully. Where did this phraseological unit come from? The fact is that the loon has a specific cry with overflowing sounds - it looks like a manic laugh.
Cry crocodile tears
If someone says that you are crying crocodile tears, he means that you are not sad and you are pretending, moreover, in fact, you may even be happy. This expression appeared due to the belief that crocodiles cry when they devour their prey. They certainly don't feel too sad about being killed. In fact, crocodiles can really cry while eating, and not only. The researchers found that when eating food, air enters the lacrimal sinuses and can cause tears in crocodiles. Definitely, it is not connected with any emotions. This is just a physiological reaction, like sweating during nervous tension in a person.
Bee knees
This English phrase is used to describe something wonderful, incredible. Do bees have knees and are they really good? Like other insects, bees have legs made up of six segments connected by joints. One of the segments can be considered more or less similar to a knee, but in the sense familiar to humans, the bee simply does not have them. Perhaps the expression came from the fact that bees carry pollen on their feet, and the pollen is really wonderful. The expression became popular in the twenties in America, when phrases like "cat's pajamas" or "mustache of sardines" were also in use - probably this was simply due to the peculiarities of those times. Now such phrases can be heard much less often.
Mulish
When you hear this phrase, you can surely imagine how someone pulls a donkey by the harness, and that one rests and refuses to go. You may have also heard the mule version of this expression. Do stubborn animals really exist? In fact, this is a lie: neither donkeys nor mules have a bad temper. They train well and are really smart. Therefore, they do not like to find themselves in risky situations and can resist when they are not satisfied with the behavior of the owner. This explains the reputation of stubbornness.
The cat has nine lives
Obviously, a cat doesn't really have nine lives at all. This popular saying appeared because cats seem to be mysterious representatives of another world, they sneak silently, jump high and seem to magically disappear somewhere. When people use this phraseology, they mean that cats can survive many things that other animals are not capable of, for example, falling from a height. Cats are really good at handling falls, but that doesn't mean they have supernatural powers. If the cat falls from a low height, it does not have time to correctly coordinate the body and may be injured. However, even when falling from a great height, the cat can still die. There are other ways to "lose lives" - street cats often fight or get hit by a car. A third of domestic cats die of cancer. In a word,they are mortal creatures like everyone else. Don't think that cats have any unique ability to survive.
You can't teach an old dog new
This proverb is used to emphasize that old people (or animals) cannot learn new things. In fact, this is not so, both people and dogs are trainable. An old dog can be trained in many things. Any command, skill, or trick available to a puppy can be taught to a large dog, it just takes a little more time. Researchers worked with dogs of different ages to test how alertness and concentration are related to age. They found that older dogs lose interest more quickly on their own, but if held by humans, they are just as attentive as puppies. It can be convenient not to learn anything new, but it is good for everyone to keep their minds occupied - this applies to both the elderly and pets. So do not be lazy, go with your dog for a walk, grab a new toy. If you are using a proverb about yourself, keep in mind that mental activity prevents old age from dementia.
Marina Ilyushenko