​​Long in the Tooth 'I’m too long in the tooth,' said Preside | Happy Interpreter

​​Long in the Tooth

"I’m too long in the tooth," said President Biden in one of the recent press conferences. What did he mean?

Though the meaning is quite guessable from the context, it is better to be forearmed with exact knowledge, especially with people like Biden, whose speech is at times a bit slurred because they are rather... long in the tooth :-)

You've guessed it: the phrase is a joking way to say someone is old. This 16th century Latin expression was first used in written English by William Makepeace Thackeray back in 1852. The thing is, horses' teeth actually get longer with age—hence another old adage, "don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

How then do we render Biden's phrase in Ukrainian? Some options include:

Старий я вже.
Я вже не в тому віці.
Я вже збУйвік.
З мене вже порохнЯ / порохнО / порох сиплеться. 

In case you are from Ukraine, notice how polysemantic the last one becomes if we use it to describe our Gray-Haired Hetman! 

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If you are following генрі kissінжир, our today's content surely rings a bell with you—because this is exactly where the better part of this post is borrowed from.

The channel is authored by Silvester Nosenko, a fellow interpreter known for his work for President Zelenskyy and the likes. Though not really long in the tooth, Silvester consistently delves deep into the language and the subject matter of what he interprets and translates. You could have heard him unveil some inner workings of our profession in this podcast episode.

Silvester's efforts demand admiration, and his channel is worth following—among other things, you'll learn where to send the proverbial Russian warship, and how to call Russian politicians.