One of my favorites is “conosco i miei polli” which means I know my chickens. It really means: don’t try to fool me, I know what you’re/they’re up to. It is a phrase that represents how agriculturally oriented Italian culture and language are.

Another is “non e’ farina del tuo/mio sacco.” Meaning: it isn’t flour from your sack. Really meaning, I/you didn’t do that myself/yourself. If someone pays a compliment for your pasta sauce, but it come from a jar, you could say it isn’t flour from your own sack, modestly denying any credit for how good it is. However, the phrase can also be used as an accusation. If a professor thinks that your term paper was written a little too well, he might say “this isn’t flour from your own sack.”
Yet another idiomatic expression having to do with food, very Italian.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.