"Få ut fingeren!"
Translation:Get your finger out!
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421
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/f%C3%A5_ut_fingeren
Wow. Today I learned. I never knew the whole expression.
Yeah. Means that one must get started at what he has to do (which has been postponed)
Kind of like in english you can say 'pull your finger out' which means pull your weight i think
To the norsk natives: Do you use this expression in your daily life or is it frowned upon as vulgar?
It's not exactly formal, but there's a version of this expression that's really vulgar; "få ræven i gir" which means get your ass in gear.
- 1810
That's interesting because the expression isn't quite so 'shocking' when spoken in English. Are there any other expressions that are mild in English but easily construed as vulgar in Norwegian?
- 1778
I am a native English speaker and think it would be considered quite vulgar in English. I wouldn't use it.
I agree that it's a rather crude way of telling someone to 'get a move on.'
A bit the same as 'move your ass'. Slightly vulgar and informal, but not very much so.
på dansk er det ret aggressivt, men om du kan tillade dig det, kommer selvfølgelig an på, om du taler til dronningen eller til din undersåt :P
- 1263
In the US, a fairly common but vulgar equivalent is "get your thumb out of your ass." Here's a discussion of its use by Steven King: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/get-your-thumb-out-of-your-ass.1905486/
I've never used thumb, we always say "get your head out of your ass" in my area :)
In the US South, I've heard "get your finger out of your nose" as a milder equivalent.
Wow! we have the exact same expresion in panamanian spanish (have not heard it elsewhere, but it could also exist in other hispanic countries) "sácate el dedo!" IPA: /'sa ka te el 'de ðo/
This is not an American English expression, but thanks to British television, we know what it means!
In Swedish we have the idiom: Få tummen ur. (Get your thumb out) It means the same thing- to start doing something. It sounds quite 'vulgar' to me, I never use that expression, even though I know what it means and it is a very common expression. :)
In Italian the same expression is a little more "kind": to encourage someone to move, to make a decision, you can say "move your ass"
- 1237
I have never heard this expression in any language and wondered what it meant. Get it out to hitch hike? Get it out of the toaster? I had no idea that it was vulger.
I think this is a really vulgar English expression which I would never use.
I think there may be a difference in perceived vulgarity of expressions like this between generations. As a 34-year-old UK millennial, this seems quite mild to me, though I wouldn't use it in a formal context :p
