A bate câmpii

A bate câmpii

A Romanian people simply do not talk nonsense, they just “beat the fields”. English people decided to come to our help and they are just “beating about or around the bush”.
Even though this English expression seems the most appropriate translation to “a bate câmpii”, the Romanian one does not only mean that you are avoiding getting straight to the point but you might also talk nonsense.
This idiom’s origin is actually French, from the “battre la campagne” which initially had the positive meaning of discovering new places, the more recent meaning is pretty negative. The difference between the Romanian version from the French one is the noun in plural “câmpii” and the fact that in Romanian it just had a negative meaning from the start.
Ex.
Soția, către soț:
– Iubitule, ți se pare că sunt grasă?
– În niciun caz!
– Dar mami ești grasă!
– Ce tot bați câmpii, măi copile, mama ta este un model…
– …De focă.
Vocabular:
Soț, soție (more formal) – husband, wife
Iubitule – honey
A i se părea – to seem
Gras, ă, și, se – fat
În niciun caz – no way
Tot – (here) keep
Copil – child
Focă – seal