I wonder if the etymology of "cutting corners" is as obscure as "winning hands down" is now.
In Mexico we have an expression, "the twenty has fallen", which means you have come to realise something. It refers to old payphones from my parents' time which wouldn't operate until a 20-cent coin would fall. #Pragmatics and #linguistics are fun.
I was always a little bothered by the translation of the title of Like Water for Chocolate. It makes no sense at all in English without an explanation, but my mom would use it all the time to express exasperation with me. Had I been the translator, I would have chosen "Fed Up" as the English title.
@cheesegrits @naugeleh I think it's a little less than "boiling mad". My mom would use the phrase when she was upset, but not when she was angry. After all, water for chocolate should be just below boiling point!
@JordiGH
See now, this meaning makes so much more sense.
(I've been using a microwave and tempering machine for the last ten years or so and had not thought about the meaning of "like the water that is used to melt chocolate".
@cheesegrits
@JordiGH
I have worked with chocolate a fair amount and had always assumed it was about the way water destroys the structure of chocolate if they're mixed.