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27-Jan-2005, 01:15
| | Editor, UsingEnglish.com | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: UK
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Quote: |
Originally Posted by Marylin As far as I know it's a marriage between two people whose ages are very different. Not necessarily a marriage made in heaven...
They might be close in social status but more often than not they are motivated to stay together by other things...most often it's $$$$
Think Anna Nicole Smith ... true love? It's definitely an extreme example but there are plenty of those and the tabloids are having a field day with these guys.
I can understand what December sees in May, but what on earth does May see in December?  | Admittedly it wasn't exact, but it did cover one of the ideas.
A famous TV interview in the UK began by asking a magician's wife (he's short, bald, not an oil painting) what she saw in the millionaire magician. The look on her face was memorable.  | 
27-Jan-2005, 05:03
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Quote: |
Originally Posted by tdol Admittedly it wasn't exact, but it did cover one of the ideas.
A famous TV interview in the UK began by asking a magician's wife (he's short, bald, not an oil painting) what she saw in the millionaire magician. The look on her face was memorable.  |
Yeah, I know what she saw in the magician all right...it's called a wallet.  | 
27-Jan-2005, 12:21
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Quote: |
Originally Posted by Marylin that's for sure..whatever rocks your boat!  | Where is Taka when I need him? | 
28-Jan-2005, 01:23
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Probably in Japan, but I haven't seen him here recently.  | 
28-Jan-2005, 15:01
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Is marraige an institution, Polygyny and Polyandry! | 
28-Jan-2005, 15:09
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Quote: |
Originally Posted by blacknomi Is marraige an institution, Polygyny and Polyandry! | Marriage may be an institution but there are still a couple of good guys running free. | 
29-Mar-2005, 18:03
| | | Re: looking for an idiom I do not know whether this quote is helpful to you or not, but the Vietnamese people often say that A and B are a well-matched couple. | 
30-Mar-2005, 01:57
| | Editor, UsingEnglish.com | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: UK
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| | Re: looking for an idiom When we say that in BrE, we mean a happy couple with a good chance of a successful marriage.  | 
31-Mar-2005, 03:22
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| | Re: looking for an idiom Someone already said "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" ... that is the only one that I could think of ... but it generally is used to refer to the selection of friends, rather than romantic interests.
Usually in the USA, we suggest quite the opposite for those romantically inclined when using the idiom "Opposites Attract." Meaning that we look for partners that fill in our blank spaces, or our complements. Rarely do we have sayings between men and women that highlight shared traits; we usually highlight and exaggerate the differences; such as "She'll get him today; but, he'll get her tonight" ... speaking of the wedding day and night.
It is interesting to take a deeper look at how discrimination plays a strong hand in our informal language. Embedding "isms" inside of idioms makes it more culturally palatable to maintain unattractive institutional assumptions. Of course, we do the same with jokes. Societies have all sorts of gimmicks to enforce and maintain the status quo.
One idiom that I can think of for two people marrying outside of their class status is "Marrying up" ... which tends to also have a negative connotation. | 
31-Mar-2005, 06:24
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| | Re: looking for an idiom One idiom that I can think of for two people marrying outside of their class status is "Marrying up" ... which tends to also have a negative connotation.[/quote]
The original question, though, was to find an idiom that puts the two at the same level. If you marry up, you marry someone a lot more successful than yourself. You step up the social status ladder.
ex. John Kerry marrying Teresa Heinz. Big $$$$ | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes | Linear Mode |
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