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pull someone's leg = κοροϊδεύω, κάνω πλάκα σε κάποιον, τον δουλεύω

Raiden

Raiden

New member
You don't mean that. You're just pulling my leg. Don't believe him. He's just pulling your leg.
to kid, fool, or trick someone.
To tell someone something that is not true as a way of joking with them.
Is he really angry with me or do you think he's just pulling my leg?
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pull+leg

As I was discussing some political views with a chap, he replied that I was pulling his leg. I know what he meant but I'm curious to find out where that was first used.

Με δουλεύεις. Mε κοροϊδεύεις. Πλάκα μου κάνεις
 
daeman

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
...
Pull the other one (it's got bells on)!
Exclam. You are joking aren't you? Used to express a suspicion that one is being tricked or teased. E.g."I drove round the corner and there was a pink elephant in the middle of the road." "Yeah sure, pull the other one!" {Informal}

pull someone's plonker
Vrb phrs. To tease someone, to pull someone's leg. E.g."It's true, he offered to pay me for a brand new car. I thought he was pulling my plonker". Cf. 'plonker'.


Pulling one's leg (World Wide Words)

From Gill: Why do we say pulling your leg when we are teasing or having a joke with someone?

Michael Quinion: Oh, dear, I wish we knew. People keep asking me this, but there’s very little evidence on which to base a sensible reply. It’s usually said that the term arose in the 1880s in Britain, since the first known reference appeared in W B Churchward’s Blackbirding in that year: “Then I shall be able to pull the leg of that chap Mike. He is always trying to do me”. But Jonathan Lighter, in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, has found an example from 1821, suggesting that it might both be much older and also known in America as well as Britain (although American sources usually suggest that it is indeed British in origin). There’s also a Scots version to draw the leg that might indicate its homeland is north of the border.

Some writers suggest it may have had something to do with tripping a person up as a joke, or figuratively tripping him by catching him out in some error to make him seem foolish. Others prefer to link it to street thieves, who might trip their mark up to make it easier to steal from him. But why either activity should be likened to pulling a person’s leg is unclear. It’s often ghoulishly said that it derives from the days of public hangings, in which friends of the condemned person would pull on his legs to speed the process of asphyxiation and so ensure a quicker death; but it’s hardly possible to equate that with a jape or deception.

None of these have any appeal except as stories. The truth is out there, but it’s keeping itself well hidden.
 
daeman

daeman

Administrator
Staff member
Και βέβαια:


clop clop clop
SOLDIER #1:
Halt! Who goes there?
ARTHUR:
It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!
SOLDIER #1:
Pull the other one!
ARTHUR:
I am,...
 
dharvatis

dharvatis

¥
Παραλλαγή της έκφρασης σε επεισόδιο του CSI:
Pull my other leg, it plays "Jingle Bells" :-)
 
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