16 March 2012

wasting time

Every language seems to have a colourful expression to describe wasting time doing nothing in particular. In English we say you are twiddling your thumbs. In Chinese, maybe 打蚊子 (da wenzi, 'swat mosquitoes') is similar.

What about Malay? How about berpeluk tubuh ('hug the body')? Does this carry the same kind of meaning?

Here's the headline from an article on page 3 of the Media Permata of 15 March 2012:Translated, it says: 'Youths are urged not just to hug their bodies.'

My dictionary glosses berpeluk tubuh as (1) 'to fold one's arms' and (2) 'lazy'.

1 comment:

  1. I believe the closest Malay phrase would be 'goyang kaki'(shake legs) which is commonly associated with earning money without doing any work in particular.