se le vendió un peine a un calvo
English translation: selling a comb to a bald man / person // selling snow to an eskimo
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| 08:44 Jun 12, 2019 |
| Spanish to English translations [PRO] Medical (general) / Mental Examination | |||||
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|  Selected response from: Charles Davis Spain Local time: 08:07 | ||||
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| 4 +8 | selling a comb to a bald man / person |
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Answers
16 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +8
peer agreement (net): +8selling a comb to a bald man / person Explanation: I think the literal translation works fine. It's a saying in English too. It goes better with a gerund than an active verb, I think. "Para poner de manifiesto la habilidad muy grande de una persona se dice a veces que es «capaz de hacer hablar a un mudo», o de «cortar un pelo en el aire», o de «contar los pelos al diablo», o de «vender un peine a un calvo», o de «sacar agua de una piedra», o de «sacar polvo de debajo del agua»." https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/biblioteca_fraseologica/n1_c... There are quite a lot of modern examples of the phrase in English, in the world of selling, where it refers to the ultimate achievement of a salesperson, but to show it's not new here's one from 1932. It refers to a native American: "He is now a traveling salesman of great ability. His latest achievement is the difficult task which is the ambition of all salesmen—selling a comb to a bald-headed pale-face. He will soon be selling fans to the Eskimos." https://archive.org/details/clarion_yb_1932/page/n37 -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 20 mins (2019-06-12 09:05:21 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- It reminds me of a traditional Spanish joke: "Algo es algo, dijo un calvo, al encontrarse con un peine". |
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