Techniques for Interpreting Abstruse English Idioms into Arabic

Idioms exist in every language. They are words or phrases that aren't meant to be taken literally. For example, if you say someone has cold feet, it doesn't mean their toes are actually cold. Rather, it means they're nervous about something. At the present time, idioms, in all languages around the globe, are commonly used not only in texts, business, press, novels, short stories, plays and social media communication tools, but also articulated in everyday spoken language. In fact, idioms are commonly used in all aspects of life and in all world cultures and languages. For example, in Armenian, stop ironing my board means stop bothering me. In French, when chickens have teeth means something's never going to happen. In German, an elephant made out of a fly means to make a big deal out of nothing. In Italian, to treat someone with a fish in their face means to disrespect someone. In Japanese, my cheeks are falling off means the food is really delicious. In Polish, mustard after lunch means it's too late to do something. Consequently, all these examples prove the importance of interpreting idioms into various languages. But interpreting idioms is not an easy process, since interpreters may encounter many challenges and problems while interpreting them into another language. This study investigates the techniques of interpreting abstruse English idioms into Arabic. The data of the this study are collected from a number of well-known dictionaries such as: A Dictionary of English idioms: English - Arabic, Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Al-Mawrid AL-Hadeeth: A Modern English-Arabic Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. The data analysis of this study reveals that there are many techniques can be used for interpreting English idioms into Arabic. These techniques are selected and graded according their own priorities.