1,001 Essential Turkish Idioms (for English Speakers) The ‘Best of’ Learning Practical Turkish Volume 2 Jim and Perihan Masters 2 1,001 Essential Turkish Idioms (for English speakers) The ‘Best of’ Learning Practical Turkish Vol. 2 1st Print Edition -- November 2003 1st Electronic Edition -- May 2006 Published by Habibullah Enterprises, SA P.K. 27 35480 Gümüldür İzmir, Turkey (Türkiye) WWW Website: http://www.practicalturkish.com/ E-mail: [email protected] Non-original illustrations from public domain sources via Hürriyet TARIH and Popüler TARIH (İstanbul) ISBN – Application submitted text and cover © Habibullah Enterprises cover and inside graphics by Patricia Rawlings Printed by Taşkın Matbaası, Gümüldür-İzmir, Turkey (Türkiye) Habibullah Enterprises, the Habibullah logo and Learning Prac- tical Turkish logo are trademarks of four country computing, ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro- duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, without the written permission of the publisher and copyright owner. 3 About the Authors Jim and Perihan Masters are a husband and wife team, living on the Aegean Coast of Turkey just 50 miles south of İzmir. Jim was born in Shanghai, China -- of American military parentage. Peri was born on the Black Sea coast of Turkey near Trabzon, of Turkish military parentage… First at Brown University and then at the University of North Carolina, Jim pursued studies in Mathematics and Computer Science. Upon graduation, he worked as a computer program- mer/analyst on both US coasts before taking a position in London as Technical Director for a computer facilities man- agement firm – during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Enticed by a Financial Times advertisement, he joined a NATO sponsored enterprise in Ankara in the 70’s where he met the beautiful and brainy Perihan, a rising young Turkish banking executive. It was uninhibited love at first sight, except that neither spoke the other’s language! So they embarked on a mad language- learning scramble (which continues to this day) that culminated in their marriage -- now in its 20-something year. After spending fifteen working years Stateside (with numer- ous visitations to Turkey), the two opted to return permanent- ly to Turkey in 1992 to take up residence in Gümüldür, a sea- side resort town in the heart of what was once the ancient Ionian Empire. There they live an idyllic life by the sea -- writing, drawing and painting, teaching English, and providing computing service support to local businesses. They also sponsor the MSNBC award-winning Learning Practical Turkish (LPT) website (located at http://www.practicalturkish.com/) that has built an enthusi- astic international following of devoted Turkophiles and inquisitive language students of all ages. 4 From the Authors The Authors wish to extend a special thanks to Taşkın Çalı, our dear pal and language-adviser (and Beşiktaş’s stoutest sup- porter south of the Golden Horn) -- whose invaluable help with the LPT website (and with this book too!) leaves us eternally in his debt. And, to Patricia Rawlings (our favorite ‘Girl of the North Country’) -- for her inspirational encouragement and in- creasingly accomplished assistance across the board -- we send the four warmest winds of our Aegean appreciation. color bar Visit our website soon and often… It’s dedicated to struggling Turkish language learners just like you -- and it’s loaded with authentic voice recordings too!! The Learning Practical Turkish website is located at: http://www.practicalturkish.com/ 5 Table of Contents Introduction................................................... 7 1,001 Essential Turkish Idioms ............................. 9 Acronyms, abbreviations, notations ........................ 10 The Best of the Idiom Stories............................ 251 Sources and Acknowledgements............................ 267 Book Index .................................................. 277 Note: See the inside front and back covers for phonetic pronunciation guidance. color bar Visit our website soon and often… It’s dedicated to struggling Turkish language learners just like you -- and it’s loaded with authentic voice recordings too!! The Learning Practical Turkish website is located at: http://www.practicalturkish.com/ 6 7 Introduction The weird and wonderful ways of Turkish expression As we’ve stated on previous occasions, we think that Turkish is a difficult language to learn if you come from an English- speaking background -- as some of us do. • The vocabulary is hard to remember (and can be ambigu- ous) • The tricky use of suffixes can drive you to drink • The word order in sentences is backwards to English, and • The way of expressing actions and ideas takes a lot of getting used to This, the second book in our series, The Best of Learning Prac- tical Turkish, will (of necessity) address all four of those difficulties -- but with a primary focus on the ‘weird and won- derful ways’ of Turkish expression. Thus, the whole of its content is devoted to the essential Turkish idioms. If you've ever felt lost trying to follow a Turkish conversation, it may be because of these 'comprehension killers'. We know you've seen reference books written for English speakers about English and American idioms. But, although there are many fine books on Turkish idioms, they’ve all been written for Turkish speakers in Turkish. Until now. Those of you who know our WWW website may remember when our original Turkish idiom encyclopedia ‘hit the bricks’ in 1996. And you may have watched it growing over time, ever since. (As we write this Introduction, the online compilation has swelled to almost 1500 idioms.) 8 Our online idioms encyclopedia is based on more than 12 years of personal in-country experience. And it reflects quite a wide range of interests -- having been gleaned from A) conversa- tions with our Turkish friends and neighbors, B) Radio and TV broadcasts, C) Turkish movies, D) the Turkish print media, E) Turkish pop-music lyrics, F) Turkish folk tales and histories and G) Turkish novels. The specific 1,001 essential Turkish idioms found in this book (along with several of their historical-origin stories) represent the crème de la crème of our online encyclopedia. Painstakingly selected, revised, and arranged for the printed page, these ba- sic Turkish idioms are intended to meet the everyday needs of Beginners and Intermediate learners of the Turkish language. These are the idioms you’ll hear and see wherever you go, who- ever you meet, whatever you read. But enough of this palaver! It’s time to kick back and send your Turkish language-learning skills into overdrive -- as you explore LPT’s 1,001 Essential Turkish Idioms. color bar Visit our website soon and often… It’s dedicated to struggling Turkish language learners just like you -- and it’s loaded with authentic voice recordings too!! The Learning Practical Turkish website is located at: http://www.practicalturkish.com/ 9 LPT’s 1,001 Essential Turkish Idioms Visit our website soon and often… It’s dedicated to struggling Turkish language learners just like you -- and it’s loaded with authentic voice recordings too!! The Learning Practical Turkish website is located at: http://www.practicalturkish.com/ 10 Acronyms, abbreviations, notations AB The European Union – Turkish abbreviation ABD The United States – Turkish abbreviation AKP 'Justice and Development Party' [Turkish political party] - the ruling governmental party when it swept national elections in November 2002 to rule for 6 years. Br British English CHP The 'Popular Democratic Party' [Turkish political party] coll. colloquial DEHAP Democratic People's Party [a minor Turkish political party] DSP Democratic Left Party [Turkish political party] DYP True Path Party [Turkish political party] example Underlined words indicate a cross-reference. [example] Bracketed words supplement the original entry. (example) Parenthetical words explain the original entry. EU The European Union – English abbreviation Fig. Figuratively IMF The International Monetary Fund Lit. Literally MHP National Movement Party [Turkish political party] sb somebody/someone sth something US American English YSK Supreme Election Committee of Turkey