Speaking through your elbows (Spanish idioms)
I'm in recovering-from-the-flu mode, so I'll start trying to get back in shape by pointing out this common Spanish idiom - which I translated into Spanglish to serve two purposes: 1) it's a catchy title and 2) you might just be able to remember this idiom after seeing such a strange sounding sentence in English. OK, enough suspense: today's post is about how to say "talk non-stop" in Spanish: "hablar por los codos" (codo = elbow). Examples:
Spanish
1. No me gusta estar con ella porque habla por los codos.
2. Intenté evitar a Juan en la fiesta porque siempre habla por los codos.
English
1. I don't like to be with her because she talks non-stop.
2. I tried to avoid Juan in the party because he always talks your ear off.
I'm not sure where the expression comes from but maybe, since people in Spanish-speaking cultures tend to gesticulate a lot, it's a graphic representation of someone wildly talking and moving his/her arms about. I've just seen online that there are a number of English equivalents for this expression: talk non-stop, talk your ear off, talk your pants off, talk up a storm, talk the hind leg off a donkey, and a lot of others. Spanish is easier, at least in this case.
Brad
