Green thumb: examples
- Beate has been looking after her large garden with many different types of vegetables and fruits that she has grown herself for years. In addition, she takes care of the large variety of beautifully flowering plants. If she travels for a few days and a representative takes care of the garden, you can tell the difference. Beate simply has a green thumb.
- At work, there are plants at every desk that colleagues take care of. But some are pretty stunted and downright dead. Some colleagues have a green thumb and others don't.
Green thumb: meaning
A green thumb has nothing to do with an illness or other discoloration. Even those who paint their thumbs green themselves do not correspond to the meaning of this phrase.
People with the so-called green thumb have one special talent for gardening. The flowers, in particular, usually bloom really well and lack nothing.
The person with the green thumb is usually very passionate about plants and likes to spend many hours a week on the subject.
Green thumb: origin
What is certain is that the phrase originated from the American, where it means "to have a green thumb".
However, the exact background of this phrase is fairly unknown. One explanation is: if you are familiar with plants, you will uses your thumb to check whether the soil is still damp. This can be used to determine whether the plant should be watered again.
Another explanation is that the clay pots change over time green moss edge forms and this can result in a green thumb when you touch the pots.
Similar or related phrases:
- Travel by thumb (travel as a hitchhiker)
- Have a sick thumb (have no money)
- Hold your thumb on something or have it (don't push something out, use something sparingly)
- At the green table / from the green table (without knowledge of practice, from the desk or from the office)
- On the green meadow (in front of the city, on the outskirts)
- Do not come on a green branch / Do not come on the green branch (find no solution together, have no success)
- Lower your thumb (reject something, comment negatively on a decision)
- Something is in the green area (something is under control or in the tolerable, acceptable area)
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