Turkish idioms are easy to learn and fun to use in daily conversation to impress locals. If you loved our first part of the Turkish Idioms series, we are bringing you the second part to help make your Turkish learning adventure a fun ride.
Saçını Süpürge Etmek
Women used to let their hair grow down to their heels because those with longer hair were thought to be more beautiful. When women did house chores such as sweeping the floors, the hair braids would touch the floor and sweep it like a broom.
Saç: Hair
Süpürge: Broom
Etmek: To Do / To Make
Literal Meaning: To use someone’s hair as a broom
How you can use it: Senin için saçımı süpürge ettim, beni nasıl terkedersin? (I did everything for you, how can you leave me?)
Dingo’nun Ahırı
In the past, in Istanbul, the trams were run by horsepower. Two horses would be enough for plateaus but the hills that connect Galata and Şişhane were too high for two horses to carry. That’s why an additional horse would join the party from Azapkapı till Taksim. There was a man named Dingo who owned a stable in Taksim. The extra horses would stay there to rest after their shifts. The fact that there were too many horses coming in and out of Dingo’s stable all day long, made people use the idiom “Dingo’s stable” to show that a venue is too busy and crowded with people coming in and out all the time. It is used in a negative sense to reflect that there is no authority and rules.
Dingo: A Greek name
Dingo’nun: Dingo’s
Ahır: Stable
Literal Meaning: Dingo’s Stable
How you can use it: Dingo’nun ahırı mı burası? Biraz sessiz olun! (Do you think here is Dingo’s stable? Be quiet!)
Hapı Yutmak
During the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Murad IV banned the public use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. A spy from the Palace informed the Sultan that the chief of medicine Emin Çelebi was high on opium. From then on the idiom hapı yutmak has been used to imply that someone is in big trouble.
Hap: Pill, drug
Yutmak: To Swallow
Literal Meaning: To Swallow the Pill
In English: To Be Doomed, To Be in Trouble
How you can use it: İşte şimdi hapı yuttum! (Now I am in big trouble!)
Eli Kulağında
The story of this idiom is believed to date back to the time Islam started to spread. In Mecca, as the number of Muslims increased, it became harder to organize the prayer times and to call everyone out for prayer was decided to be done through ezan, the call to prayer. The first years of Islam, there were many non-believers in Mecca, who tried to divert the attention of the muezzin, the person appointed to recite the call to prayer, while he is reciting. The muezzin found a solution by blocking his ears with his both hands. This led to conversations such as:
A: Did the muezzin recite the ezan yet?
B: No, but his hands are on his ears. (Meaning he is blocking is ears and getting ready to recite the call to prayer.)
This idiom is nowadays used to imply that something is about to happen very soon.
El: Hand
Eli: Someone’s hand
Kulak: Ear
Kulağı: Someone’s Ear
Kulağında: On His Ear
Literal Meaning:
In English: On the verge of
How you can use it: Annem birazdan eve gelir, eli kulağındadır. (My mom will be home in a short while.)
Let us know in the comments of any other idioms you love or how else we can use these idioms in a sentence!
