To beat swords into plough-shares

VIII. Phraseological Borrowings:

1) A great amount of English phraseological units are connected with ancient mythology, history and literature; some of them have an international character:

Achilles heel, the apple of discord, Augean stables, the golden age, the thread of Ariadne, the Trojan Horse, to cry wolf too often, to rest on one’s laurels, a bed of roses, at the Greek calends (ad calendas Graecas).

2) Phraseological borrowings from French were either rendered into English or present translation loans:

after us the deluge (après nous le déluge);

appetite comes with eating (l’appétit wient en mangeant);

the fair sex (le beau sexe);

castles in Spain (châteaux en espagne);

let’s return to our muttons (revenons à nos moutons);

3) Phraseological borrowings from German were not numerous:

Blood and iron (Blut und Eisen) принцип политики Бисмарка

The mailed fist (gepanzerte Faust) Вильгельм II, 1897

Storm and stress (Sturm und Drang) – течение в немецкой литературе 70-80 гг. XVIII в.. Период напряжения и беспокойства.

4) Phraseolical borrowings from other languages: Spanish, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Arabic, Chinese:

Blue blood, the fifth column, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance, tilt at windmills.

The Sick Man of Europe – Николай II о Турции в 1853 г. – любая европейская страна, находящаяся в тяжелом экономическом положении.

An ugly duckling – человек несправедливо оцененный ниже своих достоинств (Г.Х. Андерсен);

To lose face – потерять престиж, быть униженным, обесчещенным (кит. Tiu lien);

Alladin’s lamp, an open sesame – быстрый и легкий способ достижения чего-либо.

It is worthy of note that there are phraseologisms which coinside in Russian, English, French, and German without borrowing:

A bird of passage, oiseau de passage, Zugvogel.

IX. Phraseological units belonging to AE are the so-called inner borrowings:

bark up the wrong tree – напасть на ложный след, ошибиться;

a green light – свобода действий;

in the soup – в трудном положении;

to sell like hot cakes – нарасхват;

out of sight – великолепно, несравненно;

small potatoes – мелкая сошка

to look (feel) like a million dollars

time is money (Benjamen Franclin’s “Advice to a Young Tradesman”, 1748);

the almighty dollars;

a Rip Van Winkle – отсталый, косный человек (W. Irwing);

the last of the Mohicans (F. Cooper)

to bury the hatchet, to dig up the hatchet, to be on the war path;

ships that pass in the night (H. Longfellow) – мимолетные, случайные встречи;

the grapes of wrath – J. How;

hitch one’s wagon to a star – Ralf W. Emerson;

the call of the wild (J. London);

the iron heel (J. London);

the big stick (Th. Roosevelt, 1900);

pie in the sky (IWW).

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