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Comment by ulzeraj | Hacker News Reader

Brazilians have terms that make no sense at all even in our own language. Things like greeting someone with “beleza?”(Beauty?) and the other end replying with “Jóia” (jewel). Other things include “pretending to be armless John” and “pull your small horse out of the rain”.

Most of them have some obscure meaning that is unknown to most people nowadays.

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It's a good thing the English language is a different kettle of fish that doesn't hornswoggle us blithering idiots while we chew the fat and things go pear-shaped.

Almost every language has this. Its called idioms, and I am fascinated by them. Some examples in English: "wet your whistle", "cost you an arm and a leg", "basket case", "bite the bullet", "for a song".

"cost you an arm and a leg" and "for a song" don't seem like the others. Those two makes metaphorical sense without being idioms (even though they are idioms). You could translate them to any language, dialect, etc. and the meaning is still clear. Not so with your other examples.

"wet your whistle" has multiple idioms too (slang).

My favorite Brazilian phrase is “too much sand for your/my truck.”

"Muita areia para a minha camioneta"

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=too%20much%2...

literal meaning: it’s a lot of sand for your little truck.

rough translation: he or she is out of your league

When I lived in County Donegal (Republic of Ireland) a couple of my favourite phrases you'd hear in passing were:

"Now we're on a pig's back" - doing well

"They're doing a big thing" - performing a task, but perhaps in an over complicated way

"High on the hog" is where the good fat is. Prosciutto comes from that part.

This is strange. I was curious about the meaning of “pretending to be armless John” so I googled it.

There is only result for the use of that phrase:

Your post.

So what's your fun example situation for us of someone “pretending to be armless John”?

https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9Cpretending+to+be+ar...

Act as someone who does not understand a situation in order to not do something or not face the consequences.

An explanation I read is a reference to mutilated men being dismissed from going to war

https://www.dicionariopopular.com/dar-uma-de-joao-sem-braco/

( A Google translator might help)

João-sem-braço (literally, John-without-arms) is someone who feigns ignorance, pretends they're not aware of something to avoid doing something unpleasant or for personal gains.

A reputable publication in Brazil had a columnist write about the origin of the sentence here (obviously in Brazilian Portuguese): https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/augusto-nunes/de-onde-vem-as-...

Apparently, beggars would tie one arm (or both) around their body under clothing, pretending to have been injured in war.

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