Baat Kaatna

January 24, 2021

Today’s Hindi idiom (मुहावरा) is:

बात काटना।

(Transliteration: Baat kaatna.)

Literal translation: To cut the talk.

Cutting my talk!

Figurative meaning: To speak out of turn. To interrupt while someone is speaking.

Usage in a sample sentence:

ज़्यादातर, मैं जो भी कहूँ, मेरे पति मेरी बात काटते रहते हैं। यह भी घरेलू हिंसा का एक हल्का रूप है।

(Transliteration:  Jyadatar, mai jo bhi kahoon, mere pati meri baat kaathe rehte hain. Yeh bhi ghareloo hinsa ka ek halka roop hai.)

Translation:  Most of the time, whatever I say, my husband keeps interrupting me. This too is a mild form of domestic violence.

Origins of the idiom: When someone is speaking and another person interrupts the speaker, it feels as if the second person is cutting off the first person’s talk. By cutting in, the second person forces the first person to stop talking or makes him feel that what he had to say was not important. This perception of ‘cutting off’ someone’s talk would have given rise to this idiom.