English to Spanish Social Sciences Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

I have decided to compile a somewhat thorough English-Spanish glossary, a long-standing goal I have had for many years but never actually done. In approximately 10% of the cases, I am recurring to you, my colleagues on Proz, to ask you to help me get appropriate translations into Spanish of a number of idioms.

I want to assure everyone that ALL TRANSLATIONS WILL BE SHARED on the open forum we have in Proz. The way I guarantee this is by choosing “one answer” to which I incorporate many of the other answers, and then I click to save the question and answer on the open Proz forum.

Selection criteria: 1) extensive usage throughout the Spanish-speaking world. I am counting on your help, and since usually colleagues simply agree without adding where they know the translated term to be used, I am not able to specify this in the answers. This is not a commercial enterprise, but rather an informal exercise for the benefit of all of us. 2) Many times there are really creative idioms that are used which, although not used necessarily through the Spanish-speaking world, would be readily understood by all. I am particularly happy to include these in the open forum so that we can all enjoy them in our use, whether literally, or perhaps with an adaptation to the degree that each translator deems appropriate for that particular target population.
Please, when you agree with an answer, mention the countries in which you know such idiom to be used, if not already mentioned by another colleague. Since this project is so time-consuming and endless, and since, like you, I have such a heavy load of translations and interpreting jobs to do and cannot spend umpteen million hours on it, I must count on your help. And although simply listing countries because another translator says so is in no way scientific, at least it is an interesting start.

Finally, I know context is everything. Quite often I will give the meaning(s) in which I am interested, and I will attempt to include a sample. Some sources, such as the Random House Dictionary, already have an example, so there is no need for me to do this, since time is of essence.

Thank you for your help.

Definition: humbly asking for a favor.

example:

For me, troubling thing is that this is what the voters want. One of the biggest sources of outrage in the aftermath of Katrina were “where is the government?” “what are they doing to help people?” People seem to look to the central government as the primary national charity. Of course many, many people gave to a wide range of charities after Katrina, but many more considered it the government’s responsibility to help these people first. Earlier in this blog I used the example of Herbert Hoover going to the people, hat in hand to encourage giving. Somehow, things were different then because he was successful. I don’t know if the same strategy would be successful today, but I know that no one is asking.

I think real leadership would be shown if, instead of pledging “to put the full might and money of the federal government behind the reconstruction,” that is, pledging your money and mine; it’s our federal government after all, our leaders would give a speech that went something like this.