# paardenbril (blinkers)



## ThomasK

Modern people should not be wearing "*een paardenbril*", or literally horse glasses, horse spectacles, so we say in Flanders. It means we should not be narrowminded, rather have an open mind. 

Our Dutch counterparts want us not to have "*oogkleppen*" (something like "eye covers"), called "*'blinkers*", I now find out in English. That is the origin of course: the eye covers helping horses not to get distracted...

So: 
- Dutch, Flanders: _paardenbril_
- Dutch, Netherlands: _oogkleppen_
- English: _blinkers_ 

What about you? Do you have special expressions for that? (Will you also translate them literally please ?)

_(I suppose_ *tunnel vision* _is too medical to be used, but that would have been a different expression.... )_


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## Frank78

In German there are two different words.

I guess from the Dutch word you are talking about the thing pirates typically wear which is an "Augenklappe" (lit.: eye clap) in German. While horses wear "Scheuklappen" (baulk claps).


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## Rallino

In Turkish:

_*At gözlüğü*_ is the litteral translation of Horse glasses and it is an existing term.

Other than that we say:

*Dar çerçeveden bakmak* = To look through a narrow frame.


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## ThomasK

@ Rallino: what kind of frame is that? A window frame, or any ? That reminds: we do have the fairly uncommon word _*denkkader*_ (thinking frame), but a Dutch author of 'book comics' introduced the word _*denkraam*_, which is just the same but seems to refer to windows rather. 

it reminds me of the English expression: *an out-of-the-box thinker*, which suggests very much the same thing, doesn't it? 

@ Frank: I wonder about my _oogkleppen_ belong to pirates though, Frank. I mean: what is striking is that we refer to the plural always, whereas pirates surely don't wear two _oogkleppen_ at the same time. ;-) But I could not find _*baulk claps*. _

_*Scheuklappen*_ suggests, I guess, that horses should not frightened. Correct ?


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## Rallino

ThomasK said:


> @ Rallino: what kind of frame is that? A window frame, or any ? That reminds: we do have the fairly uncommon word _*denkkader*_ (thinking frame), but a Dutch author of 'book comics' introduced the word _*denkraam*_, which is just the same but seems to refer to windows rather.
> ...



_Çerçeve_ is both a window frame and a picture frame


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## Frank78

ThomasK said:


> @ Frank: I wonder about my _oogkleppen_ belong to pirates though, Frank. I mean: what is striking is that we refer to the plural always, whereas pirates surely don't wear two _oogkleppen_ at the same time. ;-) But I could not find _*baulk claps*. _
> 
> _*Scheuklappen*_ suggests, I guess, that horses should not frightened. Correct ?



Here's an "Augenklappe"
http://www.google.de/images?hl=de&q=augenklappe&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Scheuklappen:
http://www.google.de/images?um=1&hl...&q=scheuklappen&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

"Baulk" means the horse gets distracted and frightend of something


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## ThomasK

Thanks, but don't you think we would have used the singular if we had meant "'die Augenklappe"?


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## rusita preciosa

In Russian there is an adjective *зашоренный* /zashorennyi/ derived from the word шоры /shory/ (horse blinders). 
So, I guess if I try to ltranslate the word iterally , it would be something like "behind-horse-blinder-ed"


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## ThomasK

I see. So someone is *зашоренный* when s/he is narrow-minded. 

I am just wondering: can anyone of you express the same idea using another metaphor (not referring to horses, not even to seeing)? I suppose it is unlikely...


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## enoo

In* French*:

The horse blinkers are called *œillères*, and *avoir des œillères* (to have/wear blinkers) is to be narrowminded, or at least, to see only what you want to see.


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## ThomasK

But that might be slightly different. We would then say they are *blind for* that (_blind voor_), whereas the horse glasses can hardly be put off, because most of the people don't realize they are wearing any - or think their 'glasses' do not impair their view...


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## bibax

Czech:

*Má klapky na očích.* = He has flaps on his eyes.

klapka (sing.), klapky (nom. plur., gen. sing.) = clack, flap, clapper, clack valve;
- it is a common technical term (like in "wing flap", "choke throttle valve", ...)
- derived from the verb klapati = to clack, to clap; Germ. klappen, klappern;

I think in English the term is *blinder(s)* (not blinkers), which means also narrow-mindedness.


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## ThomasK

I think both are common. See these images...


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## Encolpius

I'm afraid I can't remember any horse or non-horse expression *in Hungarian* regarding narrow-mindedness.


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## ThomasK

But not even for some forms of blindsightedness? Only blind perhaps ?


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## apmoy70

In Greek there's an interesting confusion; what people should not wear (if they do not want to be called narrowminded) is a case of clanging:
We too say that people should not be wearing blinkers; however since the hellenistic times, instead of the correct word «παρώπια» (pa'ropia, _pl., n._-->blinkers), the word «παρωπίδες» has prevailed (paro'piðes, _pl., f._); «παρωπίς» (parō'pis, _sing., f._), «παρωπίδα» (paro'piða, _sing., f._ in modern Greek) means...woman's mask  

[ð] is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative


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## ThomasK

Are you funny !!! Is that some kind of folk etymology, Apmoy ?


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## apmoy70

Yes, it's an honest mistake; colloquially has prevailed, instead of the correct word "pa'ropion-->blinker", the false one "paro'pis-->woman's mask". Since the hellenistic times therefore, our horses (and our narrowminded people) wear...woman's mask


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## hui

*Finnish: *silmälaput (eyepatches, another meaning is horse blinders)


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## enoo

ThomasK said:


> But that might be slightly different. We would then say they are *blind for* that (_blind voor_), whereas the horse glasses can hardly be put off, because most of the people don't realize they are wearing any - or think their 'glasses' do not impair their view...



Ok, I understood it as narrow minded and narrow _sighted_/with tunnel vision. Actually I think both concepts overlap a little, as people that have tunnel vision often do so because of their narrow mindness. They do not want to see anything that does not fit in their mind.

The explanation of the French phrase is that with blinkers one can see only exactly what he/she is looking at, without seeing the bad sides, or without seeing anything that might contradict them (and even though turning the head a little bit would be enough to see more, they don't). 
I don't think there's eye- or blindness-related words *specifically* for 'narrow minded' in French.


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## ThomasK

I got some ideas from Zsuzsanna, a frequent visitor, by e-mail:


> I can tell you that there are terms involving horses... The thing is that the one that is the most obvious - that we usually show with a movement of the hands: *putting your open hands to the side of the face* (a hand at each side) to indicate the leather "equipement " a horse has not to be able to see to the left and to the right which, for a man indicates that he is narrow minded. (I'll write in the thread if I remember the term that goes with it.)





> There is another which may be a bit special: *megy, mint a vak lo = goes like a blind horse* - that is when one doesn't really take the pain to look where he is going, it may indicate either sort of unrefined (brutal) manners or some consumption of illicit products (/alcohol or simple illness) that can make you go any direction your feet take you.
> Although this is not really about narrow mindedness, but indirectly... maybe could refer to it from a certain distance...


The latter is not quite what I am looking for, but it reminds me of that... Thanks, Zs !


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## catlady60

bibax said:


> I think in English the term is *blinder(s)* (not blinkers), which means also narrow-mindedness.



*Blinders *is the preferred word in the United States.


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## ThomasK

So you can't interchange them, can you? And can you use 'blinders' metaphorically?


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## Orlin

In Bulgarian it's капаци (pl., sg. капак = lid). Кон с капаци can also be a narrow-minded person (because a horse with such things sees very narrowly and this "narrowness" is transferred to people's minds).


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## ThomasK

So pronounced as _kapak_? The _kapa...i_ are the blinders, _Кон с капаци_ (koch ... kapa..i ?) is lit. someone with blinders?


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## Orlin

ThomasK said:


> So pronounced as _kapak_? The _kapatsi_ are the blinders, _Кон с капаци_ (kon s kapatsi ?) is lit. a horse with blinders?


 
Sorry, I always forget these things! I promise that I will always transliterate for you.


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## ThomasK

Don't worry, in this way I am learning as well. But then: you call that person a horse (with ...) ...  We only refer to the blinders in Dutch, and forget about the horse ;-); lots of people even do not realize the blinders refer to horses.


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## bibax

Interestingly in Czech _narrow-mindedness_ is *úzkoprsost*, lit. narrow-breast-ness or narrow-chest-ness, from úzká prsa (= narrow breast/chest).

In German:  *Engherzigkeit* (narrow-heartedness) and *Engstirnigkeit* (narrow-forehead-ness).


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## sakvaka

hui said:


> *Finnish: *silmälaput (eyepatches, another meaning is horse blinders)



The metaphorical expression is then _laput silmillä_, "patches on one's eyes".

_Hän kulkee aina laput silmillä eikä osaa ajatella suunnitelman todellisia vaikutuksia._
_Näyttää siltä, että näitä päätöksiä on taas tehty laput silmillä._

By the way, "narrow-minded" is in Finnish _kapeakatseinen_ (narrow-looked) or _ahdasmielinen_ (crowded-minded).


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## ThomasK

Thanks, both of you! 

And indeed, those references to heart, breast and forehead are interesting additions! We do have something similar in Dutch, but a variant of _narrow-minded-ness: eng-geestig-heid_. But I think I'll start a new thread for this aspect, as in these cases we are referring to the inside, but we do refer to parts of the body metaphorically.


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## ALoT

Hallo ThomasK, and you others in this thread, although it´s a long time since you wrote! I´m all new on this forum, so please excuse me if I´ve missunderstand some of the circumstances. But I am so curious about this discussion of Horse glasses! When reading old swedish military lists from 1744, I´ve found lot´s of horses wiyh "glasses" and "Spada Romana", so now I´m trying to find out more about the historical meaning in this expressions. Horses, and dogs, could have "glasses", meaning they had not so much coulor in their eyes, for horses this ment they where aspecially good for battle, they would be more succesful! Therefore I find it very interesting that you in Belgium have a similar expression in  "*een paardenbril*! Way back a lot of Belgians came to Sweden for mining and as blacksmiths, so some excange in belives, and language may accured, don´t you think?


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## ThomasK

Hi ALoT, I hope there has been no misunderstanding. It has nothing to do with real glasses, but only with this, kind of patches stopping horses from seeing too much;-)... Thus horses become more 'useful', as they can/ have to concentrate more, buth they are not like real glasses. Would you have a picture showing what you are referring to ???


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## ALoT

In Swedish: Gå inte med skygglappar  = don´t walk (trough life, understood) with paardenbril, oogkleppen, blinkers.


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## 810senior

In Japanese, we have an equivalent 色眼鏡(iromegane-_colored glasses_), which figuratively refers to looking on something through a biased viewpoint.

色眼鏡で見るiromegane-de mir-u(see something through a colored glasses)


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## Messquito

In Chinese, it's 有色眼鏡(Glasses with colors), but there is another more colloquial version, 有色眼光(eyesight/vision with colors), the 眼光 means how you see things, so it indicates "judgement".
用有色眼光看... means "Judging.../be judgmental towards..."
Note that 有色眼光 can be related to "sexual thoughts", too because in Chinese 色(color) also means "sexual/perverted/erotic"


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## ger4

Frank78 said:


> In German there are two different words. I guess from the Dutch word you are talking about the thing pirates typically wear which is an "Augenklappe" (lit.: eye clap) in German. While horses wear "Scheuklappen" (baulk claps).





bibax said:


> In German:[...] *Engstirnigkeit* (narrow-forehead-ness).


The Japanese and Chinese posts made me think of another expression that can be added to the list: _etwas durch seine eigene Brille sehen_ (lit. to see something [only] through one's own glasses/spectacles) i.e. to see something from a particular angle based on one's own knowlege or experiences only, without taking other viewpoints into consideration.


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## Penyafort

In Catalan:

horse blinkers = *ulleres *(same word used for 'glasses') or *aclucalls*, derived from the verb _aclucar _'close the eyes' + suffix _-all_.

I can't think of any use of _ulleres _for 'narrow-minded'. The related meaning can be found in the use of the word *mira*, which is the sight of a gun, a viewfinder, and other optically related things. Being _un home *de poques mires* _('a man of few sights') or _*de mires estretes* _('of narrow sights') means 'being narrow-minded'.


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