By Daniel Tilles
One of the joys of learning a language is discovering its idioms. You’ll probably never use them (and most locals won’t either). But they’re often wonderfully evocative, quirky, or both. And they can tell you a lot about a country’s society, culture and history.
Here, in no particular order, is a list of six of my favourite Polish idioms. For each of them I have provided a literal English translation in brackets, followed by an explanation of what they actually mean.
Feel free to add your own favourites in the comments section below or on social media, tagging Notes from Poland in your post. We’ll try to gather together the best of your suggestions.
1. Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
Meaning: Not my problem
A perennial favourite among learners of Polish, this phrase reached an even wider audience after appearing in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.
2. Nie rób wiochy (Don’t make a village)
Meaning: Don’t be an embarrassment
This phrase reflects the strong urban-rural divide in Poland, and in particular the tendency of some more cosmopolitan city dwellers to look down on their, as they see it, more backward compatriots in the countryside.
This is a division that runs deeply through Polish culture, society and politics. Another way in which it is manifested linguistically is in the derogatory term “słoiki” (meaning “jars”), used by urbanites, especially in Warsaw, to refer to those who have moved to the big city from the provinces, often returning from visits to their family carrying jars of homemade food.
3. Co ma piernik do wiatraka? (What does gingerbread have to do with a windmill?)
Meaning: Something is irrelevant (like the English phrase: What’s that got to do with the price of fish/price of tea in China?)
While appearing wonderfully abstract, many point out that this idiom doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Originally windmills actually did have a lot to do with gingerbread: they ground the flour that was used to make it.
4. Kiełbasa wyborcza (Electoral sausage)
Meaning: A campaign promise with popular appeal
While now a metaphor, this once had a literal meaning. The phrase reportedly emerged around the turn of the 20th century in the Galicia region of what is now southern Poland, where election candidates organised large feasts, offering the electorate free sausage and vodka in return for their votes.
While sometimes likened to the phrase “pork-barrel spending”, it is slightly different. The English term has the specific meaning of getting government money for a project in a candidate’s district, whereas the Polish one often refers to a more general election promise (like cutting taxes or increasing benefits).
The cartoon below translates (roughly) as “I was the biggest populist in town until this cretin came along”.
Wybory tuż-tuż!✏️ Andrzej Mleczko.
Opublikowany przez Polityka Wtorek, 5 czerwca 2018
5. Można z nim/nią konie kraść (You can steal horses with him/her)
Meaning: This is a good, trustworthy person
This was one of the first idioms I was taught when I began learning Polish but, although it sounds great, I’ve never actually heard anyone use it.
Poland has an unusually large number of horse-based idioms. One thing I’ve always loved is that the Polish version of “I could eat a horse” is “zjadłbym konia z kopytami” (I could eat a horse with hooves). As if eating a horse would be perfectly normal, but you’d only eat it with hooves if really desperate (which in fact probably was the original meaning, given that horse meat was once widely eaten in Poland).
6. Odgrzewany kotlet (Reheated cutlet)
Meaning: An old issue someone is trying to revive
This one is actually used quite a lot – for example by politicians accusing the other side of trying to make capital out of an issue that has no substance and should long have been forgotten. It has a particularly Polish feel to it given that kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet) and mielony (ground beef cutlet) are such staple dishes (even in vegan form, as I wrote about here).
Main image credit: Paul Downey/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and assistant professor of history at the Pedagogical University of Krakow. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, The Independent and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

















I absolutely love the two ones which are about a caretaker : to dress up like a caretaker for the feast of Corpus Christi (wystroić się jak stróż na Boże Ciało). It refers to putting on one’s best clothes for the relogious procession where all the city dwellers can see you. The other one is :to look like a caretaker’s eighth child (wyglądać jak ósme dziecko stróża) which, of course, means to look poor and miserable as the eighth kid has to wear his siblings’ old clothes.
you probably meant “wystroić się jak struś na Boże Ciało” (to dress up like ostrich for Corpus Christi) but you got the meaning right. I’ve never heard of “wyglądać jak ósme dziecko stróża”, though I’m native speaker
Where I’m from people also say “wystroić się jak stróż w Boże ciało”, never heard of the “struś” version.
Loonar, seems like you haven’t been a native Polish speaker long enough then.
‘Osme dziecko stroza’ / ‘The caretaker’s eighth child’ is a well known and used saying. The fact you have not heard of it does not defy its egsistance. Secondly your attempt to correct another user – Terefere is absolutely ridiculous. There is no ostrich on Corpus Christi LOL, just the caretaker. These words in Polish – ‘strus’ and ‘stroz’ might be confused fonetically by learners. However, it is hilarious when done by someone who claims to be a native speaker.
It is definitely “jak stróż w Boże Ciało”. Just check both phrases in Google.
Marcin ” jak STRUŚ w Boże ciało” and “Jak ósme dziecko STRÓŻA”.
Actually terefere Has it right not you
I like – what is squeaking in the grass.
There’s no saying with ostrich, the correct one is „wystroić się jak stróż w Boże Ciało”, a nie struś. And the other one is common as well
Oh my 😀 I am sure it is “wystroić się jak stróż w Boże ciało”, not “struś” – also, I am Polish 🙂
@loonar I think you have missheard the first idiom. There is indeed “stróż” not “struś” in use.
Hi, it’s “stróż” (janitor, caretaker) and not struś (ostrich). Terefere is right.
We said “stróż” not ,”struś”
We also use “wystroić się jak szczur na otwarcie kanału” which means: dress up like a rat for a sewerd opening”
There is another similar saying “wystroić się jak woźny w dzień nauczyciela”
I’m Polish and never heard the version with ostrich – just the caretaker.
“struś”…??
And don’t forget – Looking for the wind in a field.
Nope, it’s not struś. It’s stróż which means caretaker or something like a security guy
It’s definitely ”stróż” (gatekeeper), a nie “struś”. At least in the original phrase.
Maybe younger speakers of Polish changed it to make it funnier
Loonar, Terefere has right – caretaker is appropriate word not ostrich.
Definitely struz not ostrich my friend
Stroz w Boze Cialo
It is definitely “stróż” not “struś”😂😂😂
Actually is you look like seventh child of baby jagie
“Zjadłbym konia z kopytami “ it refers to being hungry. To eat horse with hooves means that someone is so hungry they would eat the whole horse and its hooves, even hooves can’t be eaten.
Hooves means „Kopyta” not “kopytka” which can be translated directly as „mini hooves” but has got different meaning “potato dumplings”
I like this one: “świeci się jak psu jaja na Wielkanoc” – glows like a dog’s ball’s for Easter, something very shiny.
Another good one is “Jak psu z gardła” (From dog’s throat) which means “being wrinkled” e.g. somebody’s clothes.
The 5th Idiom is not strictly polish – it is also used in Germany. Now the question is where it was first…
I like idioms with animals:
‘Tlumaczyc cos jak krowie na granicy’ – ‘To explain something to somebody as to a cow on the border’. It means explaining something in a very simple and straightforward way, yet at no avail. It’s a way to express one’s frustration with their interlocutor not being able to understand something so simple and obvious.
My friend uses a phrase ” I know you like my own pocket ” where we would say I can read you like a book. 🙂
Nie wypadł sroce spod ogona.: did not fall from under the magpie tail. Meaning: he is soo important.
Well the meaning is a bit different: according to SJP it means “someone is no worse than others and you have to reckon with him” not that someone is sooo important. 🙂
It is rather about not being unimportant or insignificant.
1. wyglądać jak pół dupy zza krzaka
2.Taki z Ciebie (piłkarz, pisarz, malarz etc…) jak z koziej dupy trąba
3. Kręcisz się jak gówno w przeręblu
4. zakręcony jak gówno w betoniarce
Make a mint in English is sth like make a lot of money. Feel mint to sb (czuć miętę) in Polish is : have a crush on sb (podkochiwać się). We are more romantic here in Poland.
Re: “zjadłbym konia z kopytami” (I could eat a horse with hooves). As if eating a horse would be perfectly normal, but you’d only eat it with hooves if really desperate – I’m sorry, it is not right -not desperate, but starving or even famished… it describes that the person saying it could eat a lot, because is very hungry. hope it helps 🙂👍
The confusion between 2 similarly sounding Polish words meaning “caretaker” & “ostrich” in English, remind me of a Polish song “Red poppies at Monte Cassino” which I misheard when I was a child. I heard 1 of the lines as “Po tych makach szedl zolnierziwino” (Over these poppies went a soldier & wine) when in fact the last word should have been “ginal” (died/disappeared) For decades l pictured a soldier marching through the poppies into battle, followed by a bottle of wine, to give him courage I suppose!
No he didn’t… Stróż od the fortecy Word.
zakrecony jak bawole rogi
pusty jak beben rolling Stones-ow
po..bany jak lato z radiem
ale z niego ciacho
cieszy sie jak szczerbaty na suchary