he's talking through his hat
he's talking a lot of nonsense
TRANSLATION
talk through one's hat = dummes Zeug reden --- GOOGLE INDEX talk through one's hat: approximately 100,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"Mr Fernandes was TALKING THROUGH HIS HAT," said a spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf.
(BBC News)
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Anybody who tells you he knows what's going to happen in this category of the Oscars is TALKING THROUGH HIS HAT.
(New York Times)
(BBC News)
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Anybody who tells you he knows what's going to happen in this category of the Oscars is TALKING THROUGH HIS HAT.
(New York Times)
Did you
know?
talk through one's hat
idiom
- to talk about something without understanding what you are talking about
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
There is not enough space here to discuss the many theories regarding the origin of this expression. But anyone who says they know the exact origin is just talking through his hat. One of the more interesting ideas relates to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, also known as the Latter Day Saints.
In the late 1820s, Smith announced that an angel had given him a set of golden plates engraved with a chronicle of ancient American peoples, which he had a unique gift to translate. Smith dictated to scribes what he said was an English translation of the inscribed characters on the plates, a language he described as reformed Egyptian. According to most accounts, the translating consisted of Smith looking into a hat containing a "seer stone" in which he said he could see the translated words and characters.
In 1830, he published the resulting narratives as the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ in western New York, claiming it to be a restoration of early Christianity.
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SYNONYMS
he's talking a lot of bull, that's a bunch of nonsense, what a load of baloney, hogwash! poppycock!
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Anyone claiming to know how the stock maarket will perform in the future is just talking through his hat."
idiom
- to talk about something without understanding what you are talking about
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
There is not enough space here to discuss the many theories regarding the origin of this expression. But anyone who says they know the exact origin is just talking through his hat. One of the more interesting ideas relates to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, also known as the Latter Day Saints.
In the late 1820s, Smith announced that an angel had given him a set of golden plates engraved with a chronicle of ancient American peoples, which he had a unique gift to translate. Smith dictated to scribes what he said was an English translation of the inscribed characters on the plates, a language he described as reformed Egyptian. According to most accounts, the translating consisted of Smith looking into a hat containing a "seer stone" in which he said he could see the translated words and characters.
In 1830, he published the resulting narratives as the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ in western New York, claiming it to be a restoration of early Christianity.
---
SYNONYMS
he's talking a lot of bull, that's a bunch of nonsense, what a load of baloney, hogwash! poppycock!
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Anyone claiming to know how the stock maarket will perform in the future is just talking through his hat."
