Hanging in There.

A nice eight-minute piece from PRI’s The World (for which I’ve had a soft spot ever since they interviewed me); here’s the setup:

How many times over the past 19 months have we all (mostly) said, “I’m hanging in there,” when asked the question, “How are you doing?” A lot. Marco Werman wanted to know how the answer is expressed in other parts of The World.

They get responses in Israeli Hebrew (יהיה בסדר yihyé be-séder), Mexican Spanish (allí), Mandarin Chinese (過得去 guò dé qù, 馬馬虎虎 mǎ ma hū hū [literally “horse horse tiger tiger”]), Farsi (explained as “this too shall pass”: too long to transcribe and seems to be particular to one family), and Brazilian Portuguese (song “A gente vai levando”). Alas, no Russian; the best I can come up with is держусь, but I’m sure there are more colorful expressions. Thanks, Songdog!

Comments

  1. cuchuflete says

    Please, give us a working link to your interview. The ones in the old thread don’t work.

    Had the pleasure of hearing Chico Buarque sing that in Brasil in the 1970s.
    Brings to mind another Brazilian expression that means, more or less, we’ll get by/find a way:
    Fazemos um jeito.

  2. I can’t find a link, sorry. If somebody with better navigation/Google skills than I can do so, please share, and I’ll substitute the link in the old post. I hate dead links!

  3. Argentinian Spanish would be “tirando” (~‘I’m pulling through’)

  4. Andrej Bjelaković says

    “Alas, no Russian; the best I can come up with is держусь, but I’m sure there are more colorful expressions.”

    Yeah, for Serbian I also thought of „držim se”.

  5. The 2017 episode included a bit from the 2008 interview. This is the 2008 link: https://theworld.org/stories/2008-08-19/world-words-17-global-swearology-georgian-polyphony-and-nonsense-song

  6. I added it to the post; thanks!

  7. Apparently the Russian and Spanish for “Hang in there, Baby” is “Hang in there, Baby”.

  8. David Eddyshaw says

    Can’t think of an exact translation in Kusaal, but the same basic idea is there in

    Bi’el bi’el ka kɔlig pɛ’ɛl nɛ.
    “It’s little by little that a river gets full.”

    (= Hausa Da yayyafi kogi kan cika. “By means of drizzle a river fills up.”)

    Or perhaps Mɔɔdi pilig ka yu’ada bɛ. “The grass (i.e. thatch) has come off, but the rafters are still there.”

  9. I have no idea how to translate it into Russian (by which I mean that it all depends on the circumstances and personal preference), but want to mention infamous quote from a former president and prime minister and a Deep Purple fan, now cooling his boots in the security council, Dmitry Medvedev. Денег нет, но вы держитесь/ “There is no money, but you hang on”.

  10. Not exactly meaning ‘hanging in there’, but meet þetta reddast!, a phrase of deep philosophical import:

    If Iceland were to have a national slogan, it would be ‘þetta reddast’, which roughly translates to the idea that everything will work out all right in the end.

  11. The standard Modern Hebrew for ‘hanging in there’ is לְהַחֲזִיק מַעֲמָד le-haxzik ma’amad ‘to hold [one’s] stance’. I’ve read that it’s a calque of German standhalten, but oddly enough it occurs with the same meaning in the Qumran scrolls, and in the 10th century book of Josippon (perhaps that, not the German, was the source for the first modern usages?)

  12. cuchuflete says

    Truckin’

    Keepin’ on keepin’ on
    Sometimes abbreviated as “Keepin’”.

  13. David Marjanović says

    Why hū and not hǔ? Hǔ is what I was taught for “tiger” (extended to lǎohǔ) and what the linked article has.

    Of course I’d be rather surprised if it really has anything to do with horses or tigers. The article doesn’t bring up etymology at all.

    Standhalten doesn’t mean “keepin’ on keepin’ on” at all, it means to heroically resist some great pressure.

  14. Why hū and not hǔ?

    Beats me; I copied it from an online source. If it’s wrong, I apologize.

  15. I would translate 马马虎虎 ma3 ma3 hu1 hu1 as so-so. My paper dictionary also suggests “not so bad”. In the word 马虎 ma3 hu, meaning careless, the hu is a neutral tone. It’s common for words with doubled syllables to change tones, but I don’t remember the rules for that.

    Another word with similar meaning is 将就 jiang1 jiu, make do.

    Addition: after listening to the clip, I agree that the second ma should probably be neutral tone.

  16. The standard Modern Hebrew for ‘hanging in there’ is לְהַחֲזִיק מַעֲמָד le-haxzik ma’amad ‘to hold [one’s] stance’. I’ve read that it’s a calque of German standhalten, but oddly enough it occurs with the same meaning in the Qumran scrolls, and in the 10th century book of Josippon

    Obviously, the best explanation for a Hebrew phrase that shows up in texts every thousand years or so is an immortal wandering Jew.

    Did the original Aramaic/Hebrew, recorded in Greek and translated into English as “tarry”, actually mean something more like “hang in there”? Who can say?

    (While “Lazarus” is supposedly derived from “Eleazar”, I came up with or read somewhere the folk etymology of la-ʕatzar, “[does] not stop/halt/end”)

  17. Of the Spanish words and phrases I learned as possible responses to a “How are you?” question, the closest in meaning would be “así así”, which is “so-so” (literally “so so” or “thus thus”).

  18. Standhalten doesn’t mean “keepin’ on keepin’ on” at all, it means to heroically resist some great pressure.
    That is the original meaning in Hebrew, too, usually with some prepoisitional phrase, “against…”. Later the standalone phrase became a more general expression of encouragement.

  19. Obviously, the best explanation for a Hebrew phrase that shows up in texts every thousand years or so is an immortal wandering Jew.

    The Immortal Wandering Jew as a Thousand-Year Cicada. Now there’s a dissertation title for you.

  20. Severiana ahasver.

  21. Standhalten doesn’t mean “keepin’ on keepin’ on” at all, it means to heroically resist some great pressure.
    The German equivalent to “hanging on” is durchhalten. You can tell someone encouragingly halt durch. But as a response to an enquiry about how someone is doing, the closest equivalent would be Man schlägt sich so durch.

  22. Stu Clayton says

    Also muß, around here.

    Q. Wie geht’s denn so ?
    A. Muß.

  23. Reading about Habsburg Vienna some years ago, I learned the word fortwürsteln, which was translated as a particularly Austrian way of ‘muddling through.’ But würsteln alone means muddling through, according to my dictionary, so I suppose fortwürsteln must mean muddling through as a general philosophy rather than an occasional resort.

  24. David Marjanović says

    That’s short for es muss gehen. “How’s it going?” “Wrong question. It has to be going, that’s all.”

    马虎 ma3 hu, meaning careless

    “Horse, tiger, whatever” > 1) “careless”, 2) “meh”?

  25. David Marjanović says

    I only know sich durchwurschteln “muddle through somehow”, no umlaut, very common, not usable as a reply to “how’s it going” but indeed rather a matter of general philosophy.

  26. David Marjanović says

    Oh. Fortwurschteln is to continue a provisorial solution forever – a self-stereotypically Austrian thing.

  27. You’re right, no umlaut. My dictionary (Harper-Collins) has wursteln but not fortwursteln.

  28. Jen in Edinburgh says

    Is that a typo for provisional, or do I need to get the dictionary? 🙂

  29. Jen in Edinburgh says

    Here the answer would be ‘(just) doing away’, but that lacks the sense of mild struggle that I get from ‘hanging in there’ – more keeping on keeping on.

  30. From Károly Lonyay, Rudolph, the Tragedy of Mayerling (p. 81):

    This deliberate prolonging of the agony, resolved itself into a policy of what was described by the Prime Minister, Count Edward Taaffe, as a “Fortwurschteln,” or muddling along to drag out the end.

  31. the sense of mild struggle that I get from ‘hanging in there’

    I don’t feel any such sense — to me it just means keeping on keeping on.

  32. Jen in Edinburgh says

    The OED gives To persist in spite of adversity (as of a boxer apparently facing defeat); to hold out or endure; also, to wait around, so I’m presumably not alone (although I might be old-fashioned, because their last quotation is from 1984)

  33. But those definitions also don’t imply struggle — “persist, hold out or endure, wait around” have no tinge of struggle to me.

  34. For me, ‘hanging in there’ suggests persisting in an unwanted or unhappy situation — so I agree with Jen in E that at least a mild sense of struggle is implied. Or grumbliness, at least.

  35. Reminds me a bit of
    https://youtu.be/jTJz0MHGVbc

    “Should we kill you right away or do you wish to suffer first”
    “It’s better to suffer first, of course”

  36. “Otherwise, what would be the point?”

  37. The canonical Hang in there, Baby poster depicts a cat that is presumably struggling to not fall. So those familiar with the visual image (or related ones) may well have the idea of a struggle brought to mind, consciously or unconsciously.

    I also wonder if there might be some conflation between the similar yet related phrases of hang[ing] in vs. hang[ing] on.

  38. Here’s the OED entry, with citations (s.v. hang):

    to hang in

    intransitive. To persist in spite of adversity (as of a boxer apparently facing defeat); to hold out or endure; also, to wait around. Frequently imperative and with there. colloquial (chiefly U.S.).

    1969 New Yorker 14 June 44/3 He tries a careful, hang-in-there, soft crosscourt top-spin dink.
    1971 E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 98 Hang in (there).
    1971 Atlantic Monthly May 6/1 [President Nixon] has a long history of coming from behind..and of confronting adversities, and it would be in his nature to hang in there and fight.
    1972 Dict. Contemp. & Colloq. Usage (Eng.-Lang. Inst. Amer.) 15/1 Hang in there, buddy, you’ll soon feel better. To make sense; to fit in or carry through, as a conclusion that is appropriate for what went before.
    1974 New York 18 Mar. 39 Rose Mary Woods is hanging in, but her friends say it has been difficult.
    1979 J. Heller Good as Gold 347 Hang in there, if you can, until his eyes turn glassy and he starts to yawn.
    1982 Observer 26 Sept. 25/7 Mrs Mao had him down and almost out, but he hung in.
    1984 J. Archer First among Equals xii. 134 ‘No, no,’ said Simon. ‘I’ll hang in there now that I’ve waited this long.’

  39. to hang on

    1. intransitive. To remain clinging, to continue to adhere: usually implying expectation, or unwillingness to sever one’s connection.

    1860 J. W. Carlyle Lett. III. 61 Charlotte..is still hanging on at her mother’s..with nothing to do.
    1861 E. D. Cook Paul Foster’s Daughter II. 56 What does he do now? Oh, he hangs on at the Nonpareil.
    […]
    1899 G. B. Shaw Let. 20 Apr. in E. Terry & G. B. Shaw Corr. (1931) 260 She is always hanging on by her eyebrows, whereas the German is comfortably seated in a solid, permanent, broadbottomed engagement.
    1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Mar. 193/1 Lacking roots in the soil of any particular country, Whistler had always to ‘hang on by his eyebrows’.
    […]
    1958 Listener 21 Aug. 259/2 Each aircraft hangs on to the tail of the one directly in front.

    2. to hang it on: to delay or protract a matter; cf. to hang it out at Phrasal verbs (slang.)

    1819 J. H. Vaux New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Memoirs II. 179 Hang it on, purposely to delay or protract the performance of any task or service you have undertaken, by dallying and making as slow a progress as possible.
    […]

    3. To wait. Frequently in imperative: ‘be patient’, ‘be reasonable!’

    1939 J. B. Priestley Let People Sing x. 262 I’d better hang on and have a word with her.
    1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 34 Hang on!, be reasonable! Not so fast.
    1971 Woman’s Own 27 Mar. 26/1 Hang on a minute… I’m coming with you.

    4. Used in a telephone conversation in the sense of ‘hold the line’.

    1936 R. Lehmann Weather in Streets i. iv. 70 Hang on a moment… Mummy wants to speak to you.
    1960 Daily Tel. 15 Aug. 17/5 Switchboard operators have been trained not to keep any caller ‘hanging on’.
    1969 S. Hyland Top Bloody Secret i. 37 ‘Shall I tell him you’re coming?’ ‘Yes please. Tell him to hang on’.

    Locus classicus.

  40. The Immortal Wandering Jew as a Thousand-Year Cicada Sleeper.

    The more I think about it, the more I like it.

    J: “You’ve been napping for hundreds of years?!”
    L: “Yes. When I went to sleep last, the Hasmoneans had just won. ”
    J “And when you sleep, you look like you are dead?”
    L: “Yes, that’s why I choose tombs to sleep in.”
    J: “Do you think you could nap like that for three or four days and wake up when I call you?”
    L: “Y-e-e-e-e-s . . . but I do not think I like where this is going . . . “

  41. Ha!

  42. to hang on

    1. intransitive. To remain clinging, to continue to adhere: usually implying expectation, or unwillingness to sever one’s connection.

    But there’s also to “hang [on] by a thread”, which implies damage, danger, or death if they fall, whether figuratively or literally.

    “Hanging on by one’s eyebrows” implies pain in the current situation, but a presumably worse situation if they drop. Hm.

  43. I like where this is going.

    If there were periodical cicadas in Europe, medieval mystics would totally turn them into a metaphor.

  44. “Wrong question. It has to be going, that’s all.”

    that kinda works with one of the yiddish possibilities: “מע דרײט זיך” / “me dreyt zikh” / “getting spun around”.

    which i can definitely picture lazarus the cicada saying as he woke up to see first nathan of gaza and then nathan detroit.

  45. David Marjanović says

    Mir dreht sich alles is a way of saying “I’m dizzy”.

  46. Giacomo Ponzetto says

    In Italian one carries on, as in Argentine Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. What strikes me is that in my own usage that’s never in the first person singular. Even if asked about myself, I’d always answer in the plural, Tiriamo avanti, or the impersonal, Si tira avanti.

    In Catalan too, answering in the plural Anem tirant doesn’t raise any eyebrows; but I seem to understand the singular is idiomatic too for native speakers, unlike for me in Italian. I believe the impersonal variety here is the naked infinitive. For an appropriate touch of casual nihilism, I reckon a proper pandemic answer to the question Com va? can be Res, anar tirant (i.e., “How’s it going?” “Nothing, carrying on”).

  47. @Giacomo, I was about to say that about the Russian option by LH.

    1s does not “sound” wrong, but it is an idea people rarely express. I am not even sure about 2s, other then imperative (держись!)

  48. The usual signoff for Bob and Ray’s various shows would be a variation of:

    RAY: This is Ray Goulding reminding you to write if you get work.
    BOB: Bob Elliott reminding you to hang by your thumbs.

    Besides just being silly, these were a parody of cheesy radio signoffs.* The additional joke in Bob’s, “hang by your thumbs,” is that it sounds superficially like an upbeat exhortation to hang in there—except that actually hanging by the thumbs would be painful** to the point of probable impossibility, ruining the metaphor.

    * My younger brother competed in the radio commentary event at speech tournaments when he was in high school. He detested having to have a fake introduction and signoff for his presentations, as if he were a real radio jock. He told me some of his competitors would spend as much as thirty seconds (of their five-minute time slots) on their signoffs—branding exercises for their fictional radio shows. My brother kept his intro and signoff short, but he sometimes lost points from judges who wanted something longer.

    ** Whenever I occasionally hear Bob’s signoff now, my mind automatically associates it with another thumb pain joke that I remember guffawing at in my childhood, the great Gonzo attempting to put the thumbscrews to Lynn Redgrave (at 7:32).

  49. Πως είμαι έτσι κι έτσι
    Το γέλιο μου έχεις κλέψει
    Για χρόνια ποτισμένη
    Στα χιόνια χαμένη
    Να ζω στους μείον έξι

    έτσι κι έτσι

    GT
    How I am so and so
    You have stolen my laughter
    For years watered
    Lost in the snow
    To live to minus six

    DL
    That I am so and so
    You’ve stolen my laugh
    For years I’ve been watered
    Lost in the snow
    Living at minus six

  50. Kate Bunting says

    I note that the OED gives ‘hang in’ as ‘chiefly US’ – indeed, the expression was unknown to me until I came across the American usage some years ago – so I wondered what the British English equivalent would be. Among other synonyms, Merriam-Webster gives ‘bear up’ and ‘carry on’ (as in the wartime slogan, resurrected in recent decades “Keep calm and carry on”).

  51. carry on

    Immortalised in as if nothing really matters.

  52. Jesse Thorn’s signature signoff for “Bullseye” is “Just remember: all great radio hosts have a signature signoff.”

  53. As English-language alternatives I might suggest:

    “Surviving”

    “Getting by”

    Although they sound much more passive (and pessimistic) than “Hanging in there”, they seem to me slightly closer to 马马虎虎 than “Hanging in there” is.

    I might add that “hang in there” does suggest to me some sense of struggle and persistence, whereas 马马虎虎 suggests muddling along or doing passably well. Something like Japanese bochi bochi, but less assiduous.

  54. I just realised that bochi bochi as an answer to ‘How are things?’ is Osaka dialect. It means ‘little by little’. In standard Japanese bochi bochi is an onomatopoeic word with several meanings, including ‘slowly (not in a rush)’, ‘soon’, the appearance of something splashed, etc.

    Which leaves me scratching my head as to what the standard Japanese expression might be that corresponds to ‘hanging in there’…. Ganbatte imasu is not it. Perhaps Nantoka (yatte imasu)???

    Someone at Hinative suggests Nantoka yatte imasu is equivalent to Je me débrouille bien in French.

    My feeling is that Chinese 马马虎虎 mǎmǎhūhū is partly equivalent to いい加減 ii-kagen in Japanese, a word describing casualness, lack of seriousness, sloppiness, or lack of responsibility. But it is obviously not as negative in Chinese and can be used for ‘muddling by’.

  55. 马虎

    Volume 7 (p.45/47) of the Этимологический словарь тюркских языков has an entry for maχaw/maqaw/etc, meaning:
    1.1. fool; mad
    1.2. one that speaks with a lisp/burr, one that stumbles over one’s words
    2.1. foolish, dumb, stupid
    2.2. blunt (a knife, etc)
    3.1. to become blunt
    3.2. to lose strength, be exhausted
    4.1. leprosy; scab; mange
    4.2. leper

    No clear etymology is given, but a possible borrowing (from Mongolian) is suggested.

    A Kazakh-Russian dictionary has this:
    мақау

    dialect
    1. немой (тот, кто лишен способности говорить).
    = mute
    2. несведущий (не обладающий познаниями в какой-нибудь области, мало знающий). егіннен түк хабары жоқ мақау → ничего не смыслит в посеве
    = ignorant, ignoramus

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