# EA: pins and needles



## sara-lingo

Hi
In EA how do you say pins and needles?

When you sit on your foot for a long time and when you get up to walk you cant feel your foot or your foot is tingling. Something to do with the blood being cut off.
It's called having pins and needles in your foot.

Thanks.


----------



## ayed

it is called tannmul or khadar.

Ouch! I cannot walk.My foot is numb. آي مش قادر امشي. رجلي تنملت

In Saudi, some people may say : my leg/foot is asleep. رجلي راقدة

But wait Egyptian natives to confirm mine.


----------



## إسكندراني

In Egypt we'd say رجلي نمّلت regli nammelet. I've not heard راقدة before.


----------



## cherine

Yes, the verb is nammel (as if there's ants walking in/on it ) and the noun is tanmiil تنميل and this noun is also used to describe numbness.


----------



## Tracer

For the sake of  completeness and clarification, I'd like to add:

Although "pins and needless" does refer to a numbing sensation on the limbs ("My foot feels like (like it's on) pins and needles"), most often the expression is used to mean something else.  It is used to mean a "high state of nervousness or anticipation" as in:

A:  "Are you ready for your final exam?"    B. "Yes, but I'm *on pins and needles *about it".  
This doesn't mean you're "numb" about it...or feeling a "tingling sensation" about it.....it means almost the opposite....it means you're in a high state of alert and worry about it.

It may be a Brit/US thing......I personally have never used or heard "pins and needles" for a "tingling sensation" to the limbs.  We generally say:  "My foot's asleep" or "My foot feels numb".

In this case, (the case of being "nervous") I imagine EA would not use the verb "nammel" to get this very common usage of  "on pins and needles" across.


----------



## إسكندراني

I've not heard the idiomatic usage you mention in Britain. But thanks for pointing it out in case someone accesses this later.
By the way we could also say رجلي منمّلة


----------



## clevermizo

Tracer said:


> It may be a Brit/US thing......I personally have never used or heard "pins and needles" for a "tingling sensation" to the limbs.  We generally say:  "My foot's asleep" or "My foot feels numb".



"Pins and needles" to mean high state of nervousness is very dated. I would say I have heard it in American English with almost an exclusive meaning as numbness in the limbs. This may not be the case in BE.


----------



## Tracer

clevermizo said:


> "Pins and needles" to mean high state of nervousness is very dated.



Huh?   اكيــد؟      

"Very dated" to me means something that is about 50 years old and is seldom used anymore. (like *SAEEDA* for "Good morning"  in EA).    But "on pins and needles" with the meaning of "in a nervous state" is contemporary in US English and is used, for example, all over the internet.  Here are just 2 examples of this idiom used in headlines, one dated last year and the other dated a few months ago:

http://www.istockanalyst.com/financ...ile-we-sit-on-pins-and-needles-for-q4-results

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2011/04/former_syracuse_university_sta_1.html

There were many more example of this usage in in-text position.  There's even a "modern" song on U-Tube called "pins and needles" with this meaning and all on-line dictionaries give the "nervous" meaning with no indication that it's out of date.


----------



## makandés66

إسكندراني said:


> I've not heard the idiomatic usage you mention in Britain. But thanks for pointing it out in case someone accesses this later.
> By the way we could also say رجلي منمّلة



COuld we say رجلي منمولة؟  or is that too literal?


----------



## clevermizo

Tracer said:


> Huh?   اكيــد؟
> 
> "Very dated" to me means something that is about 50 years old and is seldom used anymore. (like *SAEEDA* for "Good morning"  in EA).    But "on pins and needles" with the meaning of "in a nervous state" is contemporary in US English and is used, for example, all over the internet.  Here are just 2 examples of this idiom used in headlines, one dated last year and the other dated a few months ago:
> 
> http://www.istockanalyst.com/financ...ile-we-sit-on-pins-and-needles-for-q4-results
> 
> Former Syracuse University stars on pins and needles while they wait for NFL call that counts
> 
> There were many more example of this usage in in-text position.  There's even a "modern" song on U-Tube called "pins and needles" with this meaning and all on-line dictionaries give the "nervous" meaning with no indication that it's out of date.



I stand corrected then. It just instantly struck me like something I would hear from an old soap opera, and I've never heard it uttered by any peers. However, the meaning of "numbness" in the limbs I find very common and ordinary and hear regularly.


----------



## إسكندراني

makandés66 said:


> COuld we say رجلي منمولة؟  or is that too literal?


It's not too literal, it's wrong  I don't know if there is a logic to why we say منمّلة أو نمّلت


----------



## makandés66

By literal, I meant that if I said this منمولة would I actually be saying that my leg is teeming with ants? like I sat on an ant hill or something.


----------



## إسكندراني

It would mean nothing unfortunately...


----------



## makandés66

the "nervous" feeling could be expressed as على احر من الجمر at least according to hans weir.  "to be on pins and needles, to be on tenderhooks, in greatest suspense or excitement"  what do you all think?


----------



## paieye

The British equivalent would be "Are you ready for your  final exam ?"  "Yes, but I am on tenterhooks about it."  (I believe that tenterhooks are the hooks on which herring are cured to turn them into kippers.)


----------



## makandés66

and even more so: على احر من جمر الغضى so while we say to be on pins and needles to describe our nerve-racking suspense, in Arabic, you say to be on live embers?


----------



## quee1763

I believe that in Yemen you can say خذت رجلي for "my leg's gone numb"


----------

