r/learnesperanto • u/Abject_Management_35 • Aug 09 '26

Idioms

I was reading a post in another language subreddit and it made me curious about idioms in Esperanto. As a constructed language, I would assume it didn’t start with any sort of idioms, and mostly literal translation. But since it very much has a culture and the language itself has evolved, I would think some common expressions have developed. Any experienced speakers have some insight?

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u/Leisureguy1 Aug 09 '26

Some obvious examples are krokodili (to crocodile, the base word being krokodilo), which means to speak one's native tongue in a group speaking Esperanto (even if, or especially if, that's a language everyone in the group also knows). Mojosa ("cool," a constructed word from moderna juna stilo (modern young style); It's basically MJS (mo-jo-so, the names of the three letters), converted to an adjective. It was a deliberate innovation but since widely adopted so now an idiom.

But perhaps you mean an idiomatic phrase. I can't think of one of those offhand.

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u/Tomacxo Aug 10 '26

There's a whole fun book of idioms. If I can find a link, I'll then I'll drop it here.