Scotch

[marvan]

Hello, I have come across an expression "we either drink their Scotch or they drink ours". I am not quite sure what it means, could you pls help? Thanks!

[Anglika]

Welcome to the forums.

Scotch = whisky [Scotch whisky]

[marvan]

Hi,
thanks for welcome and for the reply as well. I know that Scotch is whisky. I was just thinking about a non-literal meaning of the expression. I found it in a text which I am supposed to translate. However, the literal meaning does not fit in there, thus I was wandering whether it could meet something like visiting /seeing people.
The context is as follows: a couple wants to spend a weekend together because "they are always up to their neck in people, drinking their Scotch or drinking their own Scotch".

[heidita]

Hi,
thanks for welcome and for the reply as well. I know that Scotch is whisky. I was just thinking about a non-literal meaning of the expression. I found it in a text which I am supposed to translate. However, the literal meaning does not fit in there, thus I was wandering whether it could meet something like visiting /seeing people.
The context is as follows: a couple wants to spend a weekend together because "they are always up to their neck in people, drinking their Scotch or drinking their own Scotch".

Really it fits beautifully, Marvan.

These people are always very busy with guests (they are either invited or they invite) and on the party they drink the other people's Scotch or their own.

If you have to translate it (which language??) you can use something like: they are always partying.

[marvan]

hi heidita,

for your info, I translated the expression as you mentioned. However, as I am doing an English translation course in Slovakia, my teacher suggested to keep words "Scotch or whisky" in the Slovak translation just to save the beauty and originality of the EN text. But thanks anyway yor the confirmation of the meaning of the expression!

[BobK]

Hello, I have come across an expression "we either drink their Scotch or they drink ours". I am not quite sure what it means, could you pls help? Thanks!

Another possible - maybe slightly facetious - interpretation would allow the nature of the drink to change. When the O'Tooles visit the McSporrans, they drink Scotch whisky, and when the McSporrans visit the O'Tooles they drink Irish whisky.

b

[marvan]

That might be the way . However Scotch is just one, isnt it? Scotch wisky not the Irish one?!

[BobK]

Yeah - it was a bit naughty of me to bring Irish into it. (Incidentally, some people use the spelling "whiskey" just for Irish, but I think the feeling that the e is essentially Irish comes from the fact that Jameson's is the leading brand and they use the e spelling. Whatever the spelling, it's just a transliteration of the Geaaelic for 'water of life').

b
PS Another bit of useless information: the term 'wee dram', said - if possible - with a Scottish accent, although 'dram' is just a small measure, and 'wee' just means small, necessarily implies that the liquid involved is whisky. After an evening spent helping a friend with some DIY, for example, the host might say 'Do you have time for a wee dram before you go?'