"Dead-Sa-Mo-Lay"

[NewlyMintedThai]

I've heard the above or similar used as an idiom for "dead as a doornail".

Does anyone know what the actual phrase is, and its origin?

Thank you!

[krading]

I asked the missus and she said she hadn't heard that phrase for years.

Might be เดด สมอ แล but she is not sure as she has never seen it written.

เดด dead (from English)

สมอ an anchor

แล really

Now this is really a guess but it might be the Thai version of 'dead as a doornail' Dead as an anchor.

Someone will no doubt be able to shoot me down.

[AjarnPasa]

It has a very strange provenance

"When the the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie - dets-a-mo-lay"

It's nonsense. Someone heard the word 'dead' in "That's amore" and a new idiom was born.

Andrew Biggs wrote an article about it in The Post years ago. Of course I can't post the link here, but if you search for "Too Much Fet Mot and you're Det-sa-molay" you might find it.

Edited April 2, 2012 by AjarnPasa

[NewlyMintedThai]

Interesting, thanks!!!

[Deserted]

Can't find it using the search options you've cited. Would be very curious to know its meaning as I've heard it said many times too.

[AjarnPasa]

Older Post articles appear not to be stored online.

If you search "TOO MUCH FETMOT AND YOU'RE DET-SA- MOLE-AY" you'll see a link to the article, but this re-directs to the Post's search page.

Andrew Biggs' blog appears to be dead too, so sorry, can't help further than that.

[Tywais]

Surprisingly WiKi has it.

[NewlyMintedThai]

Too funny.

It's now my favorite Thai idiom.

Thais think it's funny, too,

[Debothai]

I may be wrong but this may be somehow related to french...As in Dead-c'est molee or something like that...But I can't speak friench anyway...so this may be total BS...

[pgangell]

My wife used to use the expression to mean 'very dead'. She heard the song and said 'there you are - dats amore eh'. We had quite a good chuckle over this when I told her the real meaning. She said that all Thai's know this expression to mean 'really dead'. Who am I to argue?

[katana]

Bit more here

http://www.thaivisa....om-dez-moh-ray/

There was also another thread with more info, but I couldn't find it.

Edited April 9, 2012 by katana