Sweating Carrots Like an Otter

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And in our part of the world right now, it’s pretty hot, isn’t it, Grant?

Yeah, it sure is.

In Fahrenheit, it’s in the 80s.

Yeah, it’s way up there lately.

And this has me thinking about expressions involving sweat.

Do you have a favorite?

Well, I’ve always thought that saying that women glow, they don’t sweat, was always nice.

And Yiddish Schvitz, you know, which even sounds like it’s almost onomatopoeic.

But, you know, we were at a campground the other day in the beautiful country of San Diego County,

And we were talking about this weather, and I was saying, well, at least the humidity is low,

Because I perspire a lot, and they all laughed.

I was like, what? Perspire? It’s a word.

But, you know, I guess it’s just a little too fancy for some people.

Perspire. I perspire. It’s called perspiration.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s a little elevated, I guess.

You don’t put on an anti-sweat roll that you buy at the drugstore, right?

It’s an anti-perspiration roll.

Well, of course, there’s also, you know, I’m sweating buckets or I’m sweating like a sinner in church.

But Spanish speakers have a great expression.

It’s sudar como un pollo, which, of course, means sweat like a chicken.

Wait, do chickens sweat under all those feathers?

Well, no, and they don’t perspire either, I don’t think.

But if you picture a chicken on a rotisserie, you know, a rotisserie chicken.

That’s right.

When they’re spinning, they are definitely schvitzing.

Yeah.

The fat is coming through the skin.

Right.

Those juices.

Yeah.

But I also like a couple of terms in Dutch.

There’s one that translates as I’m sweating like an otter, which is kind of cute, you know, because usually when you see otters.

Yeah, when they come up, all that hair, it’s still covered with water.

They look like they’ve been working hard.

Yeah.

They have been because they’re busy little guys.

Right.

They’re shiny.

But I think my favorite is a Dutch expression that translates as, I’m sweating little carrots.

Oh, little carrots.

That sounds painful.

Well, funny you should mention painful because the Dutch word for little carrots is paintees,

Which sounds sort of like the Dutch word for pints.

And so it may be that those two words got, you know, combined.

Right, a little bit of wordplay. Sweating pints makes sense. Sweating carrots does not, but sweating carrots is funny.

Yeah, it sounds painful.

Well, what do they say when you’re perspiring or glowing or sweating or schvitzing out your way?

Let us know, toll free, text or call in the United States and Canada, 877-929-9673.

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