kígyót melenget a keblén
Hungarian
Etymology
From Aesop's fable The Farmer and the Viper.[1] Literally, “to keep warm a snake on one's bosom”.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈkiːɟoːt ˈmɛlɛŋɡɛt ɒ ˈkɛbleːn]
Verb
- (idiomatic) to nourish a viper in one's bosom, to cherish a snake in one's bosom (to patronize and support a person who pays for goodness with evil)
Conjugation
- For the verb, see melenget (“to keep warm”).
- The accusative noun kígyót (“snake”) remains unchanged.
- The noun kebel (“bosom”) takes the appropriate possessive suffix according to the logical subject of the sentence plus the superessive suffix: keblemen (“on my bosom”), kebleden (“on your bosom”), keblén (“on his/her/its bosom”), keblünkön (“on our bosom”), kebleteken (“on your bosom”), keblükön (“on their bosom”).
References
- Forgács, Tamás. Magyar szólások és közmondások szótára (’Dictionary of Hungarian Idioms and Proverbs’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2004. →ISBN
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