I referred to this in the foreign words thread: My daughter brought up an interesting post on Facebook about her experience with taking Spanish. It led to my mother's often saying that que tiene usted means "what's the matter with you?", when it does not mean that literally in Spanish. However, I brought up that there are lots of expressions in English that don't make much sense when translated literally, like the "apple of one's eye," though Quinion clarified that one for me. There are other expressions here that don't make a lot of sense, either, though the comments are lighthearted and downright stupid sometimes.

What are some other sayings in English that don't make sense when literally translated?

Okay - I'll offer another: Break a leg!

However, from Quinion apparently other languages (French, German) have similar sayings.

Few expressions regarding imbibing alcohol or copulating make sense. F'rinstance, how does "shit-faced" relate to being intoxicated? Welllll, if you're drinking in a corral and fall down, maybe...

Hmmm - I have never heard of "shit-faced" as meaning intoxicated. In fact, not sure I've heard the term "shit-faced" at all.

Definitely one I know and use though - maybe just not American?

That's probably because you associate with higher-class people than I do.

Blue collar Geoff

So "shit-faced" means drunk?

It does.

A shit-face was "a despicable or hated person (OED) in 1923: 1923 P. Mathers tr. Bk. Thousand Nights & One Night IX. dlxiii. 202 Khalif eyed him askance, and answered: ‘What is that to you, shit-face?’.

From that came the adj. shit-faced, "Contemptible; ugly. Also as a more general term of abuse": 1932 E. Hemingway Let. 5 Jan. in Sel. Lett. (1981) 351 Then some shitfaced critic writes Mr. Hemingway retires to his comfortable library to write about despair.

Then later " Intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; spec. extremely drunk: 1963 Amer. Speech 38 174 One who is in the more extreme states of drunkenness is referred to as..shit-faced.

I wonder what made it change. I could understand the original definition of it.

I don't see it as such a great change. A despicable or hated person could certainly be seen as contemptible or ugly, as could a drunk person.

Yes, I suppose you are right, generally speaking.