пуснали тарля под одъра, той на миндера

Bulgarian

Etymology

Literally, “they let the hedgehog under the bed, (and) he (went) on(to) the bed”. О́дър (Ódǎr) and минде́р (mindér) both mean “bed”.

Composed of пу́снали (púsnali, “they put/let”, third-person plural renarrative aorist of пу́сна (púsna)) +‎ та́рля (tárlja, “the hedgehog”, definite objective singular of та́рльо (tárljo)) +‎ под (pod, “under”) +‎ о́дъра (ódǎra, “the bed”, definite objective singular of о́дър (ódǎr)) +‎ той (toj, “he”) +‎ на (na, “on”) +‎ минде́ра (mindéra, “the bed”, definite objective singular of минде́р (mindér)).

Proverb

пу́снали та́рля под о́дъра, той на минде́ра • (púsnali tárlja pod ódǎra, toj na mindéra)

  1. (colloquial, derogatory) give them an inch and they'll take a mile; give someone an inch and they'll take a mile (Allowing a shameless person a certain affordance may make them lose all proper respect and take even more advantage of it.)

References

  • “миндер”, in Речник на българския език [Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language] (in Bulgarian), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2014
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