BY AUGUSTIN
KNOWING idioms is useful in everyday conversation to sound more fluent and natural, as they can convey complex ideas briefly and add a layer of cultural richness to your language, making interactions more engaging and relatable.
ပုဆိန်ရိုး
/puseinroe/
• The handle of an axe
• The handle supports every swing with the purpose
• An axe providing the grip needed to wield
• အသားမာ၍ အဝါရောင် ရှိပြီ းု ဆိ န် ရိ ုး၊ တူ ရိ ုးစသည ်လု ပ် ရသော င် စောက် တစ် မျိုးက ် ုရုံးပင် ဟုခေါ်သည်။ (ရုံးပင် = Anogeissus acuminata )
• မယ်ဇလီသားသည် ညိုမည်းမည်း အရောင်ရှိ၍ မာသည်။ ြောင်လက်လာအောင် အရောင်တင်နိုင်သော သစ်သားလည်း ြစ် သဖြင့် ဘီရိုကဲ့သို့ အိမ်အသုံးအဆောင်များ လုပ် ရန် အသုံးကျသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ုဆိန်ရိုး၊ သစ်သား ဆောက် ပု တ် ရိ ုးမှ စ၍ အခြားတန် ဆာပလာအရိ ုးများနှ င့်လက် ကိ ုင် တု တ် များ လု ပ် ရန ်အသု ံးပြုကြသည်။
• ပုဆိန်ရိုးကို ဘာနဲ့ လုပ်လေ့ရှိသလဲ သစ်သားနဲ့ လုပ်ပါတယ်… အဲဒီပုဆိန်နဲ့ ဘာကို ခု တ် သလဲ သစ် ပင် ကိ ုု တ် ပါတယ် …သစ် သား နဲ့လုပ်တဲ့ ုဆိန်ရိုးက ကိုယ်နဲ့အသွင်တူဖြစ်တဲ့ သစ်ပင်ကိုခုတ်ဖို့ သံပုဆိန်သွားကို ကူညီသလို ကိုယ့်အမျိုးသားပျက်စီ းရာ ျက်စီ းကြောင် းအတွက် တခြားသူကို အကူအညီပေးတာဟာ သစ္စာဖောက်တာပါပဲ ဒါကြောင့် သစ္စာဖောက် ကို ...
The handle of an axe is made of wood, but it is essential for the axe’s blade to cut through wood, which is of the same material. Without the wooden handle, the blade would be unable to function effectively.
Therefore, individuals who betray or deceive are often compared to axe handles, as they serve to support and enable the actions of others, similar to how the handle supports the blade.
In this analogy of Myanmar idiom, the axe handle is crucial for the axe’s function, even though it is not the part that does the cutting.
Similarly, a betrayer or deceiver may not be the main force behind an action but plays a supportive role in enabling harmful acts.
The comparison highlights how such individuals, like the handle, are essential for the execution of betrayal, though their role might be less visible or direct compared to the actual perpetrator.
This idiom underscores the idea that betrayal or deceit often relies on others who facilitate or support it.
USAGES
“Betrayal is often a team effort.”
o Definition: Betrayal usually involves multiple people working together, much like an axe handle and blade work together.
o Example: “He couldn’t have stolen the information on his own; betrayal is often a team effort.”
“Behind every traitor, there’s a conspirator.”
o Definition: The trait of a betrayer often requires the assistance of others who support their deceitful actions.
o Example: “The plan to undermine the company wasn’t just his idea; behind every traitor, there’s a conspirator.”
“The enabler is as guilty as the perpetrator.”
o Definition: Those who help or support wrongdoers are equally responsible for the wrongdoing.
o Example: “You can’t just blame the criminal; the enabler is as guilty as the perpetrator.”
“Every schemer needs an accomplice.”
o Definition: People who plot deceitful schemes generally need others to assist in carrying out their plans.
o Example: “The robbery was well-coordinated; every schemer needs an accomplice.”
“An axe without a handle is useless.”
o Definition: Even though the handle is not the cutting edge, it is crucial for the axe’s effectiveness, much like certain individuals who support wrongdoing.
o Example: “His plans were good, but without the team, an axe without a handle is useless.”
“A traitor needs a partner in crime.”
o Definition: Those who betray or deceive often rely on others to help them execute their treachery.
o Example: “She didn’t act alone; a traitor needs a partner in crime.”
“Behind every act of treachery, there’s a collaborator.”
o Definition: Acts of betrayal usually involve someone who assists or collaborates in the treacherous act.
o Example: “The scandal wasn’t just one person’s fault; behind every act of treachery, there’s a collaborator.”
သွေးသစ်လောင်း
/swaysaitlaung/
• Infuse new blood
• Bring in new energy.
• Incorporate innovative ideas.
• တစ်သားမွေး တစ်သွေးလှ သည် န်မာ ဆိုရိုးစကား ြစ်သည်။ မိန်းမတို့သည် သားတစ်ကြိ မ် ွ ားပြီးတိ ုင် းးသစ ်တစ် ဖန် လောင် းသဖြင ့်တစ် မျိုးပိ ုလှ လာသည် ။
• မြန် မာ့ ဘော လုံး တ ခေ တ် ဆ န်း ဖို့ သွေးသစ်လောင်း….
• သွေးသစ်လောင် းကြမည့ ် မျိုးဆက်သစ် လူငယ်များ…
To “infuse new blood” means to rejuvenate or revitalize a project, organization, or system by introducing fresh ideas and new people.
This concept of Myanmar idiom is derived from the idea that a woman in the post-natal period experiences a revitalization of her blood, bringing new energy and vitality.
The Myanmar idiom phrase “infuse new blood” metaphorically represents the process of injecting new energy and creativity into a venture or organization by incorporating novel ideas and people.
Just as a woman’s post-natal period is associated with renewed physical vigour due to changes in her blood, an organization can become invigorated and more dynamic through the introduction of new perspectives and talent.
This revitalization can lead to improved performance, innovation, and overall effectiveness, much like how new blood brings freshness and vitality to the body.
USAGES:
Start afresh
• Definition: To begin again in a new way.
• Example: After the move, they decided to start afresh in their new city.
Make a clean break
• Definition: To leave behind the past and start anew.
• Example: He chose to take a clean break from his old job and pursue his passion.
Hit the reset button
• Definition: To start something again from the beginning, as if resetting a device.
• Example: She felt it was time to hit the reset button on her career after the long hiatus.
Begin a new chapter
• Definition: To start a new phase or period in life.
• Example: Graduating from college felt like beginning a new chapter in her life.
Start with a blank slate
• Definition: To begin without any previous constraints or influences.
• Example: They were excited to start with a blank slate in their new business venture.
Wipe the slate clean
• Definition: To remove past mistakes or issues and start fresh.
• Example: After the reconciliation, they decided to wipe the slate clean and rebuild their friendship.
Turn a new page
• Definition: To change direction or make a new beginning.
• Example: Moving to the countryside was a way for them to turn a new page in their lives.
အပင်းချ
/a painn hkya/
• To swallow bewitched food
• To consume enchanted food.
• To eat magically cursed dishes.
• To ingest food under a spell.
• အပင်းချ ဂါထာခေါ် ြေဆေး ဂါထာတော် ကြီး…
• ပညာသည်များ းခတ်သော် အပင်းချ ဂါထာခေါ် ြေဆေး ဂါထာတော် မန္တန်ကို ရွတ်ပါလေ။
• ကျားတိုက်၊ ြွေတိုက်၊ အပင်းသွင်း၊ လောင်တိုက်ကြီး၊ ာင်တိုက်ငယ်၊ အင် းမြှုပ် နာမ် နှ ိမ့ ်၊ိ ပ် ဖမ် း၊ သံ ဖမ် း၊ ကျပ် လိ ပ် သေ၊ ုဏ္ဏကတိုက်၊ ာသူတိုက်၊ တစ္ဆေတိ ုက် ၊နတ် တိ ုက် ၊စု န် းမျိုးနှ စ် ရာ့ ကိုးကျိ ပ် ကိ ုးယောက ် စသော ာဂအမျိုးမျိုးတိ ု့ကိ ုအော်ငေါက်၊ ိမ်းခြောက်၊ ာင်းမဲစေကာ မျှနှင့် ာက်ကင်းစေနိုင်သော စလွယ် အမည်ခံ ဆရာကြီးဦးထင်ပေါ်ရေးသား သည့် လက်တွေ့ပယောဂကုထုံးကျမ်း…
• ာဂအမျိုးအစားခွ ဲပု ံ၊ာဂဖမ် းစား ခြင်း လက္ခဏာ၊ ြုစုခြင်း၊ ာဂ စမ် းသပ်နည် းအမျိုးမျိုး၊ ာဂပညာ ယူနည်း၊ အင်းများကွဲပုံ၊ ာဂမီးထွန်း ပုံ၊ အင် းပုံအမျိုးမျိုးအကြောင် း၊ အပင် းကျ ရေမန်း၊ အပင်းထွက်ဆီမန်း၊ စုန်းချုပ်ဂါထာ၊ ပယောဂနိုင်ဆေး၊ အင်းချပုံ၊ လက်ဖွဲ့စီရင် နည်း၊ ာဂမီးထွန်းအင်းအကြောင်း၊ စုန်းပြုစားပုံ၊ အလုံးအပင်းချနည်း၊ ကိုယ် ပြောင်းကိုယ်ခွာစီရင်ပုံ၊ အင်းလက်ဖွဲ့စီရင် နည်းအပါအဝင် ာကီပညာများစွာ…
“To swallow bewitched food” refers to the old belief that a witch could cast a spell on someone by feeding them food made with black magic.
If a person ate this food, they would fall under the witch’s influence and suffer from a mysterious illness that ordinary remedies couldn’t cure.
Therefore, if someone consumes food given without goodwill, they are derogatorily described as eating bewitched food, implying that it will ultimately bring them harm.
This idiom illustrates the dangers of consuming things that come from malevolent or ill-intentioned sources.
It reflects a broader theme in various cultures regarding the importance of goodwill and positive intentions behind actions, especially in relationships and exchanges.
Eating “bewitched food” serves as a metaphor for engaging in relationships or accepting help from those who do not have your best interests at heart.
The consequence is not just physical harm but also emotional and psychological impacts, warning against naivety in trusting others. Ultimately, it underscores the significance of discerning the intentions behind what is offered to us.
USAGES:
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing”
o Definition: Someone who disguises harmful intentions as harmless.
o Example: Be cautious; that businessman seems friendly but could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“To bite the hand that feeds you”
o Definition: To harm or show ingratitude to someone who helps you.
o Example: He’s always complaining about his boss; it’s like biting the hand that feeds you.
“To take candy from a baby”
o Definition: To take advantage of someone who is defenceless or unsuspecting.
o Example: Conning that elderly woman out of her savings was like taking candy from a baby.
“A poisoned chalice”
o Definition: A task or position that seems desirable but is actually harmful or dangerous.
o Example: Accepting that promotion may seem great, but it could be a poisoned chalice with all the extra work.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”
o Definition: Don’t criticize or question the value of a gift.
o Example: When his grandmother gave him a used car, he should remember not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“To open a can of worms”
o Definition: To create a situation that leads to many complicated problems.
o Example: Bringing up past mistakes during the meeting could open a can of worms we’re not ready to deal with.
