Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Global Charley Horse

Ever wonder what they call a Charley Horse in other parts of the world? Me neither. But, since I inadvertently found out today, I thought I'd better share:

UK: dead leg, granddaddy, chopper
Australia: corked thigh, corky
Germany: Pferdekuss (horse's kiss)
Norway: lårhøne (thigh hen)
Sweden: lårkaka (thigh cake)
Netherlands: ijsbeen (ice leg)
France: béquille (crutch)
Portugal: paralítica (paralyzer)
Japan: komuragaeri (cramp in the calf...good one, Japan)
NE Italy: lopez (no translation on this one, not sure I completely believe it)
W Italy: vecchia (old woman) or dura (hard/tough one)
S Italy: morso di ciuccio (donkey bite)
Cen. Italy: opossum

My vote goes to Germany. Pferdekuss. Awesome. "Thigh Cake" is a close second.

I wanted to end this post with some kind of YouTube video or equivalent with that guy from Bill Nye the Science Guy saying, "Did you know that? Now you know!" If such a thing exists, I couldn't find it. I did, however, find one of my all-time favorite articles from The Onion. Enjoy!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Seriously. The Japanese win the prize for Least Imaginative. And really, when in their history have they ever thought to do something unexpected and surprising? Oh, wait. Nevermind.

Sara said...

If you find out what they call it in Finland, let me know. I'm sure Lisa Zimmerman would be very interested and could perhaps interject it into her conversations!

I like Portugal's.

Julia said...

Carl, you are a genius.

Sara, I think we might have to put Lisa on the case because googling "word for charley horse in finnish" doesn't seem to yield appropriate results.