Cheat on / infidelity

[Membre]

Hello people! What colloquial, metaphorical expressions does your language / dialect have for cheating on one’s spouse? The metaphor of giving someone horns seems to be quite widespread. Here are some of the most interesting one’s I’ve come across
🇺🇸 to two-time 🕰
🇩🇪 einen Seitensprung machen - to make a side-jump 🏃‍♂️
🇨🇭Swiss German: näbenuus hirte - to graze on the side 🐄
🇨🇭Arpitan: balye de fešale - to give string / thread 🧵
🇨🇭Rumantsch: dar dal füs - to give spool 🧵
🇯🇲 Jamaican Patois: gib ban - to give burn 🔥

 

[סייבר־שד]

The metaphor of giving someone horns seems to be quite widespread.

It's perhaps the most common one here in Mexico, to be sure: ponerle/pintarle el cuerno/los cuernos. But there's at least another one that comes to mind:

pedalear la/su bicicleta (= literally "to pedal the/their bicycle") 🚴😁

A usage example could be:

"Pobre Juan, le estuvieron pedaleando su bicicleta todo un año y él ni en cuenta."

(= "Poor Juan, he got two-timed a whole year and he didn't have a clue.")

 

[Membre]

¡Nunca lo había escuchado lo de la bicicleta, me late! ¡Gracias! And probre Juan indeed jaja

 

[סייבר־שד]

If memory serves well, I believe I've only heard it twice or thrice myself thus far, but the first time I was still a little too young to know what was meant by it...

Now I'm curious to know if any other language makes use of an identical, or near-identical expression.

 

[Awwal12]

Russian:
изменять (izmenyát') - "to betray" (or, most literally, "to change", but with a dative argument instead of a direct object)

to cuckold (in both meanings) is "наставить рога" (nastávit' rogá) - lit. "to put horns (on the husband's head)"

 

[Stoggler]

Hello people! What colloquial, metaphorical expressions does your language / dialect have for cheating on one’s spouse? The metaphor of giving someone horns seems to be quite widespread. Here are some of the most interesting one’s I’ve come across
🇺🇸 to two-time 🕰

The trouble with using flags like this implies that the usage is confined to that country, when in this case it is not. ‘To two-time’ is used in British English as well (both transitively and intransitively).

 

[Mori.cze]

Czech "zahejbat", to turn (not to move in a straight line)

 

[Penyafort]

Catalan:

· posar les banyes (a algú) [Lit., 'to put the horns (to someone)']
· fer el salt (a algú) [Lit., 'to do the jump (to someone)']
· tenir una relliscada (amb algú) [Lit., 'to have a slip/faux pas' (with someone)]

For the one who is cheated, there is portar/dur banyes ['to wear horns'] or anar carregat de front ['to walk with a loaded down forehead'].

 

[Welsh_Sion]

English: to have a bit on the side.

The 'bit' is ambiguous, I feel - it could be the 'action' between the adulterous party and their amour, or the amour herself. (It's usually a 'herself' ...)

Welsh equivalent: cael tamaid dros ben (Lit. 'to have/receive a piece over')

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek we have a verb and a noun and both have the concept of giving horns:

-Verb «κερατώνω» [ce̞ɾaˈt̠o̞no̞] --> to give horns to someone < Koine verb «κερατόω/κερατῶ» [ke̞rɐˈt̠oɔː] (uncontracted)/[ke̞rɐˈt̠ɔː] --> to give horns to someone, a denominative from the Classical 3rd declension neuter noun «κέρας» [ˈke̞rɐs] (nom. sing.), «κέρατος» [ˈke̞rɐt̠os] (gen. sing.).
The idiom of giving horns to someone for cheating is ancient, it appears in the works of Artemidorus Dalsianus (2nd c. CE): «κέρατα ποιεῖν τινὶ» [ˈkerɐt̠ɐ.poi̯ˈejn.t̠iˈni] --> to provide horns to someone, i.e to commit adultery; the idiom is inexplicable.

-Noun «κεράτωμα» [ce̞ˈɾat̠o̞ma] (neut.) --> lit. horning; it's the action of providing horns to your spouse via extramarital affair.

The person whose spouse has committed adultery is a «κερατάς» [ce̞ɾaˈt̠as̠] (masc.), «κερατού» [ce̞ɾaˈt̠u] (fem.) --> horn-wearer; interestingly, the diminutives of the aforementioned adjectives «κερατούκλης» [ce̞ɾaˈt̠uklis̠] (masc.), «κερατούκλα» [ce̞ɾaˈt̠ukla] (fem.) don't describe a person whose spouse had an extramarital affair, but someone who has accomplished something huge in their life and we're proud (and somewhat jealous) of them!

 

[sound shift]

🇩🇪 einen Seitensprung machen - to make a side-jump 🏃‍♂️
🇨🇭Swiss German: näbenuus hirte - to graze on the side 🐄

British English has an expression that's rather similar to these two: "to play away from home".

It also has one that's even more similar: "to have a woman / man on the side".

 

[Awwal12]

Russian:
изменять (izmenyát') - "to betray" (or, most literally, "to change", but with a dative argument instead of a direct object)

to cuckold (in both meanings) is "наставить рога" (nastávit' rogá) - lit. "to put horns (on the husband's head)"

P.S.: Somehow I totally forgot the relatively common expression ходить налево (khodít' nalévo), lit. "to walk to the left (side)".

 

[Welsh_Sion]

If memory serves well, I believe I've only heard it twice or thrice myself thus far, but the first time I was still a little too young to know what was meant by it...

Now I'm curious to know if any other language makes use of an identical, or near-identical expression.

"la bicicleta"

Where you perhaps also thinking of the English 'bike' ... as everyone (of the boys) has had a ride on her?

 

[סייבר־שד]

"la bicicleta"

Where you perhaps also thinking of the English 'bike' ... as everyone (of the boys) has had a ride on her?

I don't think so, but it sure is an interesting possibility, now that you mention it.

 

[סייבר־שד]

And I also forgot something myself!
There are at least two nouns that are used over here to refer to the person with whom someone is having the affair: canchanchán (m.) / canchanchana (f.) and movida (f.).

As far as I know, the first word has a more or less wide array of meanings across different Spanish-speaking countries, but here in Mexico I think I've only ever heard it used with the meaning I gave above.

Movida can literally be translated as a "move" and thus doesn't have a masculine form, but it can of course be used to refer to either a female or a male.

 

[Carolinian]

interesting ones

 

[Membre]

interesting ones

Thanks, with my stress-conditioned spelling mistakes you would have probably picked up about 13 more a year and half ago

 

[Encolpius]

I'm sure we cannot write vulgar, obscene idioms here, right? We have a few ones in Hungarian.

 

[matakoweg]

In Dutch:
Vreemdgaan = going strange
Een scheve schaats rijden = riding a crooked skate

 

[Welsh_Sion]

@matakoweg

Skate (as in French 'patin'), I suppose - not the fish ... (That would be too Monty Pythonesque, even for the Dutch, surely?)

But I could be told differently

 

[Membre]

And I also forgot something myself!
There are at least two nouns that are used over here to refer to the person with whom someone is having the affair: canchanchán (m.) / canchanchana (f.) and movida (f.).

As far as I know, the first word has a more or less wide array of meanings across different Spanish-speaking countries, but here in Mexico I think I've only ever heard it used with the meaning I gave above.

Movida can literally be translated as a "move" and thus doesn't have a masculine form, but it can of course be used to refer to either a female or a male.

Very interesting. A canchanchán / canchanchan is one’s buddy, homeboy / homegirl or by extension one’s boyfriend / girlfriend in Puerto Rican Spanish as far as I know.

 

[סייבר־שד]

Very interesting. A canchanchán / canchanchan is one’s buddy, homeboy / homegirl or by extension one’s boyfriend / girlfriend in Puerto Rican Spanish as far as I know.

Yes, like I said above, it's a word that has quite a few meanings across Spanish-speaking countries. I believe in some parts it can also mean "an unconditional, ever-supporting friend", though I'm afraid I don't remember right now where exactly.

 

[Abaye]

In Hebrew it's mostly לבגוד = to betray, usable for both a cheating husband and a cheating wife.

The term מקורנן = horned (and some other expressions based on קרן qeren = horn) for the husband of a cheating wife exists, but I don't remember hearing it for several years.

Another expression is לרעות בשדות זרים = (literally) to graze in foreign fields. This one too is not heard very often, kind of high-register slang. Its primary (figurative) meaning is to prefer (or adopt) foreign cultures (or habits).

Yet another, more vulgar, expression is אוכלת מהצד = eating from/on the side. Only for a woman. "Eating" in this context means having sex (in a disparaging manner) (I'm sure that using food terms for sex was discussed in length in these forums).

 

[Armas]

Finnish seems to have borrowed from German:
syrjähyppy (side-jump)
käydä vieraissa "to go to strangers" (fremdgehen) compare post #19

 

[dojibear]

In China, "wear a green hat" (戴绿帽子 dai lu mao zi) means be cheated on by your wife (be a cuckold). I don't know the origins, but I notice that in one historical drama people call a brothel a "green building" (青楼).