The Place For My Writers Notes

Originally posted 13 August 2007

One of the Japanese who likes to quiz me about English recently asked me what phrase or translation I would use for "abura o uru." Literally, this means selling oil, but the connotation is about goofing off when you should be working. For example, when someone is sent to pick up something and takes a long time coming back, the comment that is likely to greet them would be "Where have you been? Were you selling oil?"

Apparently the reference is to the notion of someone who spends a long time explaining why you should buy oil - working hard to sell you - when of course, everyone needs oil (or at least in times past, it was a necessity).

I managed to get out of the discussion by pointing him at "snake oil salesman." When I explained that we used to have medicine men selling stuff in the streets in America, he suddenly got very amused, and said they had similar salesmen in Japan until 100 years ago. I politely didn't comment that there seem to be some still around - there are a lot of "healthy foods" sold in Japan with tonics and such.

Anyway, I'm still noodling around trying to figure out the right phrase if there is one. Goofing off? Daydreaming? Dilly-dallying?

In that scenario about someone coming back slowly, I think I'd be likely to say something like "Where have you been? Did you get lost?"

Interesting trying to get the languages to match up. I never would have thought about "selling oil" as a metaphor for wasting time. Any ideas for an English phrase like that?