'Heated' German idioms
What do Germans mean when they complain of "monkey's heat," or when they beg you to stop speaking "around the hot porridge"?
'Goes away like warm bread rolls'
Something that sells like hotcakes, a synonym for a pancake, is very much in demand. The equivalent German-language idiom also involves baked goods: "Geht weg wie warme Semmeln," which translates as "sells like warm bread rolls."
'Speaking around the hot porridge'
When Germans say you are "speaking around the hot porridge" ("um den heissen Brei reden") they are not commenting on your table manners. The idiom means a person is pussyfooting, beating around the bush, speaking about unimportant things to avoid the heart of the matter, in short — simply not coming to point.
'You were bathed in too hot water'
A German idiom used to describe someone who is mad, foolish, unstable is to say that the person was bathed in too hot water as a child ("zu heiss gebadet worden"), a bit like asking someone in English: Were you dropped on your head as a baby?
'To make hell hot'
This German idiom is used to describe someone threatening another person, or giving them a talking-to: "die Hölle heiss machen," which means they literally "heat up hell," a place that is already imagined as red hot.
'Monkey's heat'
A German idiom for high temperatures, or baking heat, a real scorcher, is "monkey's heat." The etymology of the term is not clear, but could possibly go back to sweltering temperatures at the Berlin Zoo monkey house one year in the late 19th century. Berliners started speaking of temperatures "hot as a monkey's coop," which in time became "monkey's heat."
'Going along hot'
The German expression "heiss hergehen" points to heated goings-on, an excited, fiery occasion. The photo shows the crowd celebrating at a concert at the 2022 Wacken Open Air, which regarded as the world's biggest heavy metal festival.
'Nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked'
The German idiom "Nichts wird so heiss gegessen wie es gekocht wird" literally means, nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked. It's a recommendation to stay optimistic and confident even if a situation seems to have reached a boiling point — in the end, it is probably half as bad.
'Hot iron'
A hot potato is an issue that makes people feel uncomfortable, an issue so controversial or risky you'd rather skirt than address it. The German idiom does not involve a spud but a hot iron (heisses Eisen). The term goes back to a medieval legal practice, the hot iron ordeal, where a defendant had to clasp a red-hot iron bar. He was deemed guilty if his hand burned.