# Farina del tuo sacco



## lsp

Silvia said:
			
		

> ...che spero sia farina del tuo sacco...


This is a new one, what does it mean please?


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## winnie

non è farina del tuo sacco is an idiom and could roughly translated as _this is not your work_ (you had stolen it or copied from someother people)

HTH


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## lsp

Thanks, Winnie. I love learning these expressions!


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## winnie

My pleasure lsp.
Do you have an idiom to say the same thing?

Many thanks!


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## lsp

Nothing is coming to mind, but I'll keep you posted when it occurs to me! Maybe ikester knows? He's great at this!


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## DeanG

To use somebody's elses work without credit and to pass it off as your own is "plagierism".

My italian is fairly rudimentary but I could discern from your explanation that you have a professional interest in water conservation?  

Dean.


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## lsp

It's spelled "plagiarism," and we are looking for an idiom about it, if you know of one. Thanks!


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## winnie

DeanG said:
			
		

> To use somebody's elses work without credit and to pass it off as your own is "plagierism".
> 
> My italian is fairly rudimentary but I could discern from your explanation that you have a professional interest in water conservation?
> 
> Dean.


 
yes you are right DeanG! 
like i posted (in Italian only... my fault) i am in paints and varneshes R&D of a company which runs some chemical plants, so we have to be concerned with pollution, wasted waters and so on...

thank you for "plagiarism", the equivalent Italian word is "plagio"



			
				lsp said:
			
		

> Nothing is coming to mind, but I'll keep you posted when it occurs to me! Maybe ikester knows? He's great at this!


 
i think he his great at everything!

have a nice day!


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## ikester

lsp said:
			
		

> Nothing is coming to mind, but I'll keep you posted when it occurs to me! Maybe ikester knows? He's great at this!


I'm flattered... but I'm afraid I can't come up with an idiom that's in common use today.  

I grew up in rural Oklahoma. My grandfather's speech (and that of many people of his generation) was liberally sprinkled with colorful idioms, most of which are rarely heard today. It seemed to me that there was an allegorical saying to cover just about any situation. 

I still use a lot of these sayings -- usually to get a laugh. I always preface them with, "My pappy used to say..."  

Some day, before my memory begins to fade, I should compile these tidbits of "country wisdom" into a book. 

That being said, there's an idiom about plagiarism that I used to hear when I was a kid -- I heard it many times, but I particularly remember my 8th grade English teacher using it. She was teaching us the proper way to cite sources (using quotation marks, footnotes, etc.) when using borrowed material in a written report. She told us, "Don't try to sell me somebody else's mule." 

ciao,


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## winnie

ikester said:
			
		

> "Don't try to sell me somebody else's mule."


 
....ikester strikes again!!!!

that's one is very funny to me!
thanks a lot.


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## lsp

ikester, you have enough laurels to rest on in my book, even if this one wasn't in your repertoire!


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## Silvia

winnie said:
			
		

> non è farina del tuo sacco is an idiom and could roughly translated as _this is not your work_ (you had stolen it or copied from someother people)


 Non intendevo propriamente questo...

Farina del proprio sacco: one's own work

Qualcosa personalmente ideato, concepito, creato, formulato ecc.

Potrebbe non essere farina del tuo sacco anche qualcosa che hai sentito dire e/o che viene ripetuto più o meno pedissequamente 

Spero che quello che hai scritto sia farina del tuo sacco
Spero che sia frutto di una tua elaborazione, sia stato da te formulato
I hope that what you wrote is entirely the result/fruit of your formulation


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## You little ripper!

Idioteque said:
			
		

> Thanks a lot, Charles! But I have to admit that it wasn't "farina del mio sacco"  since I found it on my dictionary!  Personally I would have used the expression "strict dialect", but I looked it up in the dictionary in order to find something more "native"...
> 
> Bye
> 
> Laura


Hi Laura,

Are you trying to tell me that you've been "_*stealing*_ flour from_* other*_ people's sacks"?  Shock! Horror! 
That is such a good expression! I must start using it. That shouldn't be very difficult, since I'm always looking things up in the dictionary. 

Charles


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## Idioteque

Charles Costante said:
			
		

> Hi Laura,
> 
> Are you trying to tell me that you've been "_*stealing*_ flour from_* other*_ people's sacks"?  Shock! Horror!
> That is such a good expression! I must start using it. That should be very difficult, since I'm always looking things up in the dictionary.
> 
> Charles



Oops, I confess!   Sometimes I steal flour from other people's sacks!(though the dictionary is mine! ) 
So could I use this expression in English as you reported?  Would anyone understand me?


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## lsp

Idioteque said:
			
		

> Oops, I confess!   Sometimes I steal flour from other people's sacks!(though the dictionary is mine! )
> So could I use this expression in English as you reported?  Would anyone understand me?


No, it would only get you a lot of stares! I started a thread on this expression a while back and no one ever came up with any expressions in English that mean the same.


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## alahay

I know that expression "Farina del mio sacco" meaning "It's my own work"

e.g. 
Teacher: bravo, quello che hai scritto e' perfetto, ma questa farina e' del tuo sacco?

corretto?


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## lsp

alahay said:
			
		

> I know that expression "Farina del mio sacco" meaning "It's my own work"
> 
> e.g.
> Teacher: bravo, quello che hai scritto e' perfetto, ma questa farine e' del tuo sacco?
> 
> corretto?


Yes, that's the meaning, but there's nothing idiomatically equivalent in English, is there?


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## Jana337

Steal somebody's thunder could convey a similar idea (but one has to rewrite the sentence).

Jana


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## carrickp

lsp said:
			
		

> Yes, that's the meaning, but there's nothing idiomatically equivalent in English, is there?



If there is, I can't think of it. But there ought to be.


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## moodywop

alahay said:
			
		

> I know that expression "Farina del mio sacco" meaning "It's my own work"
> 
> e.g.
> Teacher: bravo, quello che hai scritto e' perfetto, ma questa farina e' del tuo sacco?
> 
> corretto?


 
I would say "E' (tutta) farina del tuo sacco?" but it may be down to personal preference.

I think we mostly use this idiom in negative and interrogative sentences, when questioning whether someone actually wrote something him/herself(it's probably most often used by teachers). Although I could very well say "Ed è tutta farina del mio sacco!" when stressing that I wrote my dissertation, an essay etc without any outside help.

As in the "raccomandare/raccomandazione" thread, I think there are cultural reasons why we have an idiom for this while there isn't one in English. There is no doubt that "cheating" in exams/tests and even when it comes to writing dissertations or scientific papers is much more widespread in Italy. It is quite common to see ads saying "Si scrivono tesi", which often doesn't just mean typing and binding but actually _writing_ the thesis/dissertation itself. Scientific papers emanating from Italian universities often list as many as ten authors - very often only one of them wrote the paper and the other names were added so that the fake authors could gain credits towards their academic advancement.

Now someone is going to sue me for libel but the practice described at the end of the last paragraph was recently documented in a feature on _la fuga dei cervelli_ in _Time._

Carlo


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## carrickp

I thought of "fruit of your labor." This exists (somewhat archaic) in English, but mainly refers to the reward/satisfaction of honest work.

I guess the closest English is going to come is, "All mine," "All your own work," "I did it myself" etc.


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## You little ripper!

You could use the expression, "Did you come up with that yourself?"


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## leenico

I think that the closest expression we have is "by the sweat of my brow."


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## Drusillo

leenico said:
			
		

> I think that the closest expression we have is "by the sweat of my brow."


 
If I have understood your expression, the italian one is: "dal sudore della fronte", that is not exactly the same of "farina del mio sacco", because the first one is used to express something done with a lot of effort.

Ciao


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## kan3malato

HI!! all

How do you say in English "non è farina del mio sacco" ?
context:
I was talking to Alex, he was trying to explain to me, the different between "lend" and "borrow".
Then I found some information on a site, after posting it on MSN, Alex said "yes right, it is. Then I added "yes but non è farina del mio sacco"
I meant, I didnt make it up, it's from someone else.

Thanks you all


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## disegno

kan3malato said:


> HI!! all
> 
> How do you say in English "non è farina del mio sacco" ?
> I meant, I didnt make it up, it's from someone else.



"It is not my idea (or work)." "I quoted someone else." "I borrowed someone else's idea." "I stole the idea from someone else".


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## ig54

Hi everyone. I'm a newby here, in fact I've just registered. 

I know it's awfully late to reply to this thread but it just occurred to me that -- in the right context -- "farina del mio sacco" might be translated/rendered as "take a leaf out of sb's book". For instance, if you submit a partially plagiarised paper that sows the seeds of suspicion in the paper marker, then they may suggest that you've been taking a leaf out of someone else's book as far as ideas or content structure go. I don't think it can be used when there's verbatim, plagiarised quotations since the phrase hints at someone imitating someone else's demeanour or actions, but it may be employed when an idea or concept that you claim to be yours is notably similar/identical to someone else's. I'm aware that the farina phrase can be applied to many more situations but I thought this might help.


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## GavinW

ig54 said:


> Hi everyone. I'm a newby here, in fact I've just registered. .


 Welcome! Your suggestion may be useful to someone. But you're right, it doesn't cover many situations. By the way, well done for reopening an old thread: it's never too late! This is a live, growing database.
One general solution that nobody has mentioned is "It's all my own handiwork". "Is it your own handiwork?" etc


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## joanvillafane

Hi Gavin, and welcome ig54!
I agree that it's hard to find just one expression to match all contexts, but here are two that may be ambiguous enough to cover the situation in post #25 (where the expression is used in the negative):

A:  That's a great idea!
B:   Thanks, *but it's not my own. *
or
      Thanks, *but I can't take the credit. /can't take credit for it.

*I don't think these will work in the affirmative, though.  I like "It's all my own handiwork," for that, as Gavin suggested.


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## Aryetti

I admit my eyes kinda crossed trying to read all comments and I apologise if I skipped the answer to my question, but I didn't see any specific one to the same option that Silvia pointed out (comment #12) 


Silvia said:


> Potrebbe non essere farina del tuo sacco anche qualcosa che hai sentito dire e/o che viene ripetuto più o meno pedissequamente


Therefore, how do we say to someone "non credo che quello che dici sia farina del tuo sacco"? 
Because in this case we're not talking about something that is copied, it's more like speaking words that come from someone else's mouth/brain, someone who makes your counterpart have doubts or say things he/she wouldn't think or say before.


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## theartichoke

Aryetti said:


> Therefore, how do we say to someone "non credo che quello che dici sia farina del tuo sacco"?
> Because in this case we're not talking about something that is copied, it's more like speaking words that come from someone else's mouth/brain, _someone who makes your counterpart have doubts or say things he/she wouldn't think or say before._



I'm not sure whether the last part of your sentence (which I've italicized) is central to the concept: if it is, I can't think of anything that expresses that as well as the first part. Otherwise, I think the most natural, albeit not very colourful way of saying "non credo che quello che dici sia farina del tuo sacco" would be "I don't think you came up with that on your own."


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## Aryetti

theartichoke said:


> I think the most natural, albeit not very colourful way of saying "non credo che quello che dici sia farina del tuo sacco" would be "I don't think you came up with that on your own."


I think your translation is exactly what I was looking for, but if you want to be sure I can provide an example: I am conversing with a friend I know for a long time who, all of a sudden, starts questioning about his girlfriend. 
F: what if Maria is actually hiding something? I mean, she's always so busy that she could easily come home after a drink or two and still pretend she was at a meeting... 
Me: wait... You've never been obsessed about the exact time Maria is expected to finish work, nor you cared if she stops for a drink... She doesn't need your permission but what I worry about is that you have always trusted her! I don't think these words are *farina del tuo sacco*. You have to stop listening to your mother, she will never like any of the women you'd hang out with!


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## theartichoke

Aryetti said:


> I don't think these words are *farina del tuo sacco*. You have to stop listening to your mother, she will never like any of the women you'd hang out with!



Ah. In this case, it would be entirely possible to say "I don't think you've come up with this on your own," but you could also say "I don't think you're thinking for yourself here," since the issue is less that he's parroting someone else's words and more that he's let someone else influence his thinking. 

Oh, and I just thought of another one, even more colloquial: "That's not you talking. You have to stop listening to your mother" or "That's your mother talking. You have to stop listening to her." "That's X talking" means "the words coming out of your mouth are what X has put into your head." X doesn't even have to be a person: "That's the beer talking; you'll think twice about that tomorrow morning" or "That's Fox News talking; you spend way too much time watching that nonsense."


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## You little ripper!

Another couple of idiomatic ways of saying this might be:

_Your mother has (slowly) poisoned your mind. Stop listening to her and do what instinctively feels right for you.
Your mother has (slowly) brainwashed you. ................

_


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## Tellure

GavinW said:


> One general solution that nobody has mentioned is "It's all my own handiwork". "Is it your own handiwork?" etc


👍
questa non è farina del tuo sacco (figurative) *this isn’t your own idea (or work)*
English Translation of “farina” | Collins Italian-English Dictionary

Dal Cambridge:
*non è farina del tuo sacco*

figurative
this is not your doing


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## Marco from Milano

Hi there,
I was looking for the same idiom in English.
Googling, I found this translation (from movie subtitles): "È stata tutta farina del tuo sacco, fin dall'inizio." *"This was your baby from the beginning."*


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## sound shift

Marco from Milano said:


> Hi there,
> I was looking for the same idiom in English.
> Googling, I found this translation (from movie subtitles): "È stata tutta farina del tuo sacco, fin dall'inizio." *"This was your baby from the beginning."*


Yes, that works in some contexts, and more successfully for AmE speakers than for BrE speakers, but you couldn't use it for a child's homework, for example.


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## rrose17

In some contexts, I suppose. But to me it means more that you're the one who "owns" it, not necessarily the one who first came up with the idea. For example, in a work situation, there's a meeting a new project/system is decided on. You're very excited about it and, more than anyone else, believe in it and start working with it and developing it. At the end, whether it was successful or not someone could say "This was your baby from the beginning."


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