Metí la pata hasta el fondo: Spanish colloquial expressions with body parts

Imagine asking a work colleague how things are going with a project you’re working on, and they respond with something like:

 – Estoy hasta las narices de este proyecto. Me estoy comiendo la cabeza pensando en la presentación de mañana, encima metí la pata y el jefe, que no tiene pelos en la lengua, me dijo de todo.

(I’m up to the nostrils with this project. I’m eating my head thinking about tomorrow’s presentation, on top of that I put my paw in it and the boss, who doesn’t have hairs on his tongue, told me everything).

No, there are no nostrils or paws involved in the matter, and nobody literally eats their head. All of that means something like:

– Estoy harto de este proyecto. Estoy pensando muchísimo en la presentación de mañana, encima cometí un error y el jefe, que habla sin filtros, me dijo de todo.

I’m fed up with this project. I’m thinking a lot about tomorrow’s presentation, on top of that I made a mistake and the boss, who speaks without filters, gave me a piece of his mind.

So, let’s look at these expressions and some more expressions.

Comerse la cabeza (to eat one’s head): no, we don’t eat our heads. That would be quite bad for our survival. If someone tells you in Spanish that they’re comiéndose la cabeza con algo, they’re telling you that they’re thinking a lot about it, that they’re worried about it.

Perder la cabeza (to lose one’s head): this expression, I think, has equivalents in other languages. No, it doesn’t mean we don’t know where our head is. It means to lose control of something. We can perder la cabeza por amor, and neglect everything else, over anger, and commit an error with serious consequences, over an irresistible offer and make a very large expense that we can’t afford, etc.

Tener la cabeza en las nubes (to have one’s head in the clouds): it’s very cold at that altitude for our head to be floating there. It means to be very distracted, disconnected from reality.

Costar un ojo de la cara (to cost an eye from the face): no, we don’t have eyes on other parts of the body nor do we trade them for things. It means extremely expensive.

En un abrir y cerrar de ojos (in an opening and closing of eyes): this expression has equivalents in other languages. When something happens in an opening and closing of eyes, it means it happens very quickly, in an instant. In the blink of an eye.

Estar hasta las narices (to be up to the nostrils): I myself don’t find the logic in it, but it means to be fed up with something.

Estar hasta las manos (to be up to the hands): this expression, if I’m not mistaken, is more characteristic of my own variant of Spanish and not others. Estar hasta las manos has two meanings: estar hasta las manos con algo, which could be work, for example, meaning to be very busy, or to estar hasta las manos con alguien, which means to be hopelessly in love, haber perdido la cabeza.

Meter las narices (to put the nostrils in): when we say that someone metió las narices en algo we don’t mean that, literally, they put their nose in a place. Unless, now that I think about it, that’s what we want to say. But in general what we want to say is that they got into something that wasn’t their business, that they got into something they shouldn’t have gotten into.

No tener pelos en la lengua (to not have hairs on the tongue): nobody has hairs on their tongue, so in theory this expression applies to all humans. But in itself it means to speak without filters, without euphemisms, very directly, not keeping quiet about anything. In other cultures this would be normal, but Spanish speakers in general avoid being so direct when speaking.

Írsele la lengua a uno (for one’s tongue to go away): if you hear someone say that in a situation se le fue la lengua, it doesn’t mean their tongue declared rebellion and escaped. It means they said things they shouldn’t have said.

Morderse la lengua (to bite one’s tongue): yes, it can mean that we bit our tongue. But in a figurative sense it means that we held back from saying something that, generally when we use this expression, we were dying to say. That is, we avoid que se nos vaya la lengua.

Quedarse con la boca abierta (to stay with the mouth open): this one is quite visual. When something surprises us we generally tend to open our mouth. So, quedó con la boca abierta (he/she/they stayed with mouth open) means they were surprised.

Echar/Dar una mano (to throw/give a hand): this has equivalents in other languages: it simply means to help. ¿Me das una mano? (Will you give me a hand?)

Lavarse las manos (to wash one’s hands): yes, it literally means to wash one’s hands, but it also means to wash one’s hands of a situation. It has the subjective meaning that whoever washes their hands doesn’t take charge of a situation they should have taken charge of.

Hablar hasta por los codos (to speak even through the elbows): as far as I know, one only speaks through the mouth. But when someone talks too much it can be said that they hablan hasta por los codos. It has a negative subjective connotation: if someone says that someone speaks hasta por los codos, they don’t mean they say many interesting things all the time, but rather that they’re unbearable.

Meter la pata (to put the paw in): a very frequent correction that we all receive as children, this I think in all Spanish-speaking countries, is for using pata (paw) for pie (foot) or for pierna (leg). In Spanish humans have piernas (legs) and pies (feet), and animals, and things like tables, have patas (paws/legs). But in colloquial language the word pata is used a lot to substitute for pierna or pie. In fact, the smell of sweaty feet is called in Spanish olor a pata. Nobody ever said olor a pies (feet smell). Meter la pata is to make a mistake. No, unfortunately I don’t know where we put the pata. But we put it somewhere. The expression refers, moreover, to a serious error. If we put the pata in, we made a gross mistake.

Estirar la pata (to stretch the pata): this expression is… dark. If someone tells you, for example, that they estiraron las piernas it means they stood up after being seated for a long time. If they tell you they estiraron las patas, in plural, it means the same thing but in colloquial language. But if someone tells you that a person estiró la pata, in singular, it means that person died. This expression is extremely colloquial and is used only in situations where the deceased person is not close to any of the people participating in the communicative act, whatever type it may be. My recommendation is that you avoid it: using this expression in the inappropriate context can cause you problems.

These aren’t all the colloquial expressions for which we use body parts, they’re simply the ones we use very frequently. On the other hand, I gave the example of estar hasta las manos (to be up to the hands), which I’m quite sure belongs to my variety of the language and which is an expression that speakers of other varieties might not understand, just as surely I might not understand some from other varieties. The Spanish language, as I always say, is a multicentric language and of course, there are colloquial expressions that native speakers themselves don’t understand. I think I already told this in another article but, to give an example here, once, speaking with a university colleague who is from Colombia, an English teacher herself, she told me that it’s very easy to teach English to these chinos (Chinese people) because they already know almost everything. I answered her that yes, that Asians tend to be very responsible and structured, to which she responded with… laughter. It turns out that in Colombia, or at least in the part of Colombia where she lives, they call young people chinos. So no, don’t feel bad if an expression seems confusing to you. It can happen to native speakers ourselves. Simply ask.