There are some southern or appalachian insults that I’m sure would confuse foreigners, even those who are functional in English.
Comparisons like “He’s twelve ounces short of a pint”, backhanded compliments like “I just love how you don’t care what people think”, idioms like “three sheets to the wind”. And then of course there’s “rode hard and put up wet”.
There’s also “bless your heart”. Around here if someone tells you that, it is not a compliment.
Non native here: “three sheets to the wind” “rode hard and put up wet” are totally unknown and over my head.
“He’s twelve ounces short of a pint” and “I just love how you don’t care what people think” I got them.
Rode hard and put up wet is a reference to horses. Riding a horse hard and then not taking care of them after the ride can cause them issue, physically and mentally. It is usually used to say someone is tired or generally not well. Others, my mother included, use it to mean she thinks a woman has had too much wild sex, usually with too many partners.
Three sheets to the wind, means to be drunk. It is from nautical terms meaning the sails are not fastened.
On a ship, a sheet is a line made of rope, used to manipulate the angle of a sail, not a sail itself.
