Bill calls from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to say his late wife, who was from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would jokingly tell him You talk like a sausage! What exactly did she mean? Although Germans have many expressions that include the word Wurst, or “sausage,” you’re more likely to be criticized for talking nonsense with the German expression that means “to talk cheese,” or Käse reden. There’s also a Dutch expression that roughly translates as “he talks like a sausage without the fat” or “He talks like a sausage that has escaped the fat.” This is part of a complete episode.
My grandma from northern Illinois used to say this! Her parents came over from Germany in the 1890s, IIRC, and Grandma was born in the US in 1905. “You talk like a sausage” was an expression she used (in English) to imply that you weren’t making sense.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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My grandma from northern Illinois used to say this! Her parents came over from Germany in the 1890s, IIRC, and Grandma was born in the US in 1905. “You talk like a sausage” was an expression she used (in English) to imply that you weren’t making sense.