In recent news stories about current affairs in the US I read about numbers
+ spiking (reaching a peak, or at least going up sharply/...), probably based on (an ear of) grain [shooting up?] or a nail, and
- tanking (going down). referring to a liquid container but not clear to me how (coined by Billy Jean King, according to etymonline.com, who said; " "They 'tank' [give up]. I never tanked a match in my life and I never saw a girl do it. ")
I did know about plummeting, but did not know the origin. Yet it is dead simple: it is a ball of lead (plomb in French), so it can only sink.
In Dutch we could say;
+ pieken (like peaking in English), referring to a sharp point (such as a mountain peak)
- kelderen, referring to the cellar
What are the metaphors you use in your language?
+ spiking (reaching a peak, or at least going up sharply/...), probably based on (an ear of) grain [shooting up?] or a nail, and
- tanking (going down). referring to a liquid container but not clear to me how (coined by Billy Jean King, according to etymonline.com, who said; " "They 'tank' [give up]. I never tanked a match in my life and I never saw a girl do it. ")
I did know about plummeting, but did not know the origin. Yet it is dead simple: it is a ball of lead (plomb in French), so it can only sink.
In Dutch we could say;
+ pieken (like peaking in English), referring to a sharp point (such as a mountain peak)
- kelderen, referring to the cellar
What are the metaphors you use in your language?