# kopiącego się nie leży (leżącego się nie kopie)



## caoutchouc27

Can someone explain this idiom to me? Context is a worker being demoted or fired unjustly – the worker in question is expressing his frustration

Many thanks in advance!


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## Ben Jamin

caoutchouc27 said:


> Can someone explain this idiom to me? Context is a worker being demoted or fired unjustly – the worker in question is expressing his frustration
> 
> Many thanks in advance!


The second part of the expression (in brackets) is a well known moral rule "you shall not kick a lying man", meaning that if somebody has been defeated then a morally righteous adversary shall not continue his vengeance with more violence.
The first part sounds to me like a corruption of the latter or a joke, or an attempt at coining a new phrase, but the phrase is simply nonsensical.
Polish humour is often based on nonsense, like "what is the difference between a sparrow?" answer "it has one leg more than the other".


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## wolfbm1

I guess it was 'kopiącego się nie lży' which means something like  'you are not supposed to abuse a man who who is lying on the floor.'


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## Ben Jamin

wolfbm1 said:


> I guess it was 'kopiącego się nie lży' which means something like  'you are not supposed to abuse a man who who is lying on the floor.'



Kopiący = lying on the floor?
Besides, who uses the word "lżyć" in colloquial language nowadays?


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## wolfbm1

Ben Jamin said:


> Kopiący = lying on the floor?
> Besides, who uses the word "lżyć" in colloquial language nowadays?


You're right. I guess I tried too hard to make sense from nonsense. 
Kopiącego się nie lży means literally: you do not abuse verbally the one who is kicking.
lżyć or ubliżać = abuse verbally

It might have been 'kopanego się nie lży', which means: you do not abuse verbally the one who is being/getting kicked.
I guess it doesn't make much sense either.


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## Soob

I don't use it often, but when I do I use "leżącego się nie kopie". I've never heard such a sentence like "kopiącego się nie leży" besides some memes like this, but it is written incorrectly on purpose


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## wolfbm1

I guess, this statement has a similar purpose, then:
Gdyby kózka nóżki nie złamała to by nie skakała.

I wonder what is the purpose of saying nonsense?


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## Larry2903

"Leżącego się nie kopie" - it's something like "you shall not worsen situation of someone, who has big troubles already", "when you see that someone is weak / helpless / etc. you should refrain from actions that would futher hit him". I wouldn't say that it may be used only in context of defeat of failure (I can imagine that also with something permanent, like poverty), but certainly this is most probable. "Kopiącego się nie leży" is opposite to the first one and... has no sense, probably was said / written as a joke contrasting with the first sentence. 

Yeah, "gdyby kózka nóżki nie złamała to by nie skakała" is pretty much the same, total nonsense. They are a little bit similar to the jokes about Soviet Russia ("in Soviet Russia freedom of speech has you", "in Soviet Russia pillow fights you", "in Soviet Russia New Year welcomes you"), and I think making such a jokes is the only purpose.


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## caoutchouc27

Thank you all so much for your very helpful replies. It turns out the nonsense version of the phrase was just a mistaken inversion of the verbs!


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## Ben Jamin

caoutchouc27 said:


> Thank you all so much for your very helpful replies. It turns out the nonsense version of the phrase was just a mistaken inversion of the verbs!


As said before, nonsense is a genre of humour in Poland.


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