# as bright as a button



## Baba May

Ce expresii românești s-ar potrivi cu expresia _as bright as a button_?

Îmi vin în minte:
- deștept foc
- ager la minte
- minte brici

Mai sunt și altele?


----------



## farscape

...ager

Ca de obicei contextul ajută la alegerea unei traduceri nimerite  

De obicei expresia în engleză e folosită fără primul as: she's bright as a button.

Ca să avem familia completă: cute as a button 🙂


----------



## Zareza

- isteț ca un proverb (Eminescu despre Anton Pann)
- deștept ca aerul care pătrunde peste tot și le știe pe toate (Richard Kunisch (1828–1885), prusac călător - în cartea „București și Stambul. Schițe din Ungaria, România și Turcia”, povestea _Fecioara fără trup_)

- minte sclipitoare
- sprinten la minte
- cu gura plină de măsele

If someone is described *as bright as a button*, it means they are quick-witted.
The term *as bright as a button* is a play on words. It plays on the idea that *bright *means both *clever *and *shiny*. (Early military uniforms had highly polished metal buttons, and this will have contributed to the idea that buttons are bright.)


----------



## Zareza

*cute as a button* here

*"cute* (< 1731 English  *acute, bright, clever*)
Being as *acute as a button* makes more sense as it's referring to the shine of polished brass buttons that make them stand out from others; but seeing as this phrase derived from "as acute as a button" it's easy to see how people mistook it for *cute *and so the phrase was redirected at cute little things and the meaning of *cute *was changed over the years. It came from *acute as a button*, which means *bright as a button*, which has the obvious origins in shiny brass buttons that stood out from the dark coats that the queens men used to wear..."

[farscape - moderator] Let's hope this quote taken from the link above will help to find a meaningful Romanian translation.


----------

