![\"Language](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/spinaten.gif\")
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A few posts ago<\/a> I wrote about an interesting Swedish idiom – trampa i klaveret<\/strong> – to make a social mistake, put one\u2019s foot in it, or literally \u201cto step heavily on the accordion\u201d.<\/p>\n Today I learnt the Danish equivalent<\/a> – tr\u00e6de i spinaten<\/strong> (“to tread in the spinach”). For example, jeg har virkelig tr\u00e5dt i spinaten<\/em> (“I have really trod in the spinach”) = I really put my foot in it.<\/p>\n Accoriding to Den Danske Ordbog<\/a>, tr\u00e6de i spinaten<\/em> means \u201cutilsigtet sige eller g\u00f8re noget dumt\u201d (to accidentally say or do something stupid).<\/p>\n Another version is tr\u00e6de\/trampe i spinatbedet<\/em> (“tread\/tramp in the spinach bed”) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Then there’s the spinatfugl<\/em> or “spinach bird”, which is apparently a person who writes reviews or other cultural material in a newspaper without a journalistic background [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Does anybody know why such a person is known as a spinach bird?<\/p>\n The word spinach<\/strong> comes from the Middle English spinach<\/em>, from Anglo-Norman spinache<\/em>, from the Old French espinoche<\/em>, from the Old Occitan espinarc<\/em>, from the Arabic \u0625\u0650\u0633\u0652\u0641\u064e\u0627\u0646\u064e\u0627\u062e\u200e (\u02beisf\u0101n\u0101\u1e35), from the Persian \u0627\u0633\u067e\u0646\u0627\u062e\u200e (ispan\u00e2x).<\/p>\n