# He's afraid of his own shadow.



## Encolpius

Hello, do you use that idiom in your language? We do. Thanks. 
It means someone is extremely timid. 
*
Hungarian: A saját árnyékától is fél.*
[a(the), saját (own), árnyékától (of his shadow), is (as well), fél (be afraid]


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## Rallino

Yes we do as well in Turkish.
*
Kendi gölgesinden bile korkar.

*[*Kendi*(own)* gölgesinden*(of his shadow)* bile*(even) *korkar*(is afraid)*. *]


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## ilocas2

Encolpius said:


> Hello, do you use that idiom in your language?


 
No

It would be:

Bojí se i vlastního stínu (He's afraid even of own shadow)


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## apmoy70

In Greek it's a common saying:
«Φοβάται και την σκιά του/της»
fo'vate ce tin sci'a tu [male]/tis [female]
lit. "s/he is afraid even of his/her shadow"

[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*: _Hän pelkää omaa varjoaankin_.
*Russian*: _Он(а) боится собственной тени_.


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## itreius

Croatian

Boji se vlastite sjene.
Boji se svoje sjene.
[(he/she/it) is afraid - own - shadow]


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: Бои се от сянката си. [(he/she/it) is afraid - shadow - own]


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## enoo

That idiom is used in *French* too (at least in France.)

Il a peur de son ombre. - He's afraid of his shadow.


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## jazyk

In Portuguese:

Ele tem medo da própria sombra.


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## merquiades

In Spanish (similar to Portuguese):
Tiene miedo de su propia sombra


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## Elvus

In Polish it is:

*bać się własnego cienia *- _to be afraid of own shadow
_*
(On/ona/ono) boi się własnego cienia. *- _(He/she/it) is afraid of his/her/its own shadow._


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## mataripis

_TAGALOG: Takut Masundan ng sariling anino._


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## Encolpius

I haven't heard it in Czech either, but I happened to check it in my dictionary now and it says: bát se vlastního stínu [literal translation]  bibax, art thou here?


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## bibax

I heard it in Czech.

In German _"sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten"_.

Another saying using "his own shadow" (with completely different meaning, of course):

Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow.
Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow.


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## ger4

"Sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten" is correct, of course, but I think in Germany it isn't used as often as the other saying Bibax mentioned:
Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er wird nie über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.
Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.


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## Dymn

In *Catalan:
*_Té por de la seva pròpia ombra._


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## ThomasK

Holger2014 said:


> "Sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten" is correct, of course, but I think in Germany it isn't used as often as the other saying Bibax mentioned:
> Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er wird nie über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.
> Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.


Dutch: h_ij is bang voor zijn eigen schaduw._ 

The other one is unknown to me.


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## ger4

According to dict.cc the other sentence - _Man kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen_ ("one cannot/isn't able to stride across one's own shadow") - is more similar to the English expression "The leopard cannot change his spots" - so, I guess, the closest German equivalent to "He is afraid of his own shadow" is _Er fürchtet sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten, _at least that would be the literal translation - even though, depending on the context, I would rather associate _sein eigener Schatten_ with "his own past", very often in a negative sense - the fear of falling back into [one's own][bad][old] habits, old habits taking over once again, something like that; difficult to express this...


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## elroy

Palestinian Arabic: بِخاف من خيالو


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## rarabara

in kurdish we say;

ژ س'یە خ ژ د ترسە (j siyo ğo ji dı tırse)


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## Perseas

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek it's a common saying:
> «Φοβάται και την σκιά του/της»


Also, from "σκιά" ("shadow") derives the verb "σκιάζομαι" which means "to be afraid".


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## Rocko!

merquiades said:


> In Spanish (similar to Portuguese):
> Tiene miedo de su propia sombra


The Mexican version says: “Le teme hasta a su propia sombra”


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