Lizardfolk idioms

[Riftwolf]

I'm currently playing as a Lizardfolk Druid who has lived in swampland his entire life and until recently didn't see a city, wagons, or any trappings of civilization beyond cloth and cooking. So a lot of real world sayings don't make sense for him to know or say. The phrase which made me give this thought was "have your cake and eat it" which doesn't make a lot of sense anyway. The rewrite I thought of was 'Eat the snake but keep the skin' to describe people trying to have it both ways. I was just wondering if there were other phrases it'd make sense for an uncivilised tribe to use? And does 'Eat the snake but keep the skin' make sense?

[Telok]

"If the lizardman word for 'human' is 'food' then their word for 'halfling' must be 'snack'."
- old (bad) wildspace joke

Found in the ad&d complete spelljammer splatbook.

[LibraryOgre]

"Makes my scales itch."
"Set my tail to twitching."
"Well, dry me out." (assuming the semi-aquatic standard lizard men)

[Metastachydium]

And does 'Eat the snake but keep the skin' make sense?

Not really, if you ask me. You can totally eat the snake but keep the skin. You just need to skin it first. It sounds more like a "let nothing go to waste" kind of advice. At any rate, I'd go more morbif than that. "Eat the softskin, then trade" (with the softskin (you've just eaten)) or something like that.

Other ideas while I'm here:
–It's not the morning sun ('it's not ideal/not much of a relief');
–[Somebody] is a log ('is a good hunter/warrior (due to being stealthy and patient)');
–I'll bite (not an idiom; just run).

Edit: Here's yet another:
–That's a loincloth ('that's a stupid, superfluous thing that doesn't help me/us').

[Bohandas]

–That's a loincloth ('that's a stupid, superfluous thing that doesn't help me/us').

On a note tangentially related to the linked OotS comic, they could refer to non-reptilians as the "tainted" (which is a pun; look up "cloaca")

[brian 333]

By my mother's egg: an oath sworn to demonstrate truthfulness.

Useful (or useless) as steel (or iron: assuming semiaquatic lizardfolk for whom ferrous metals would quickly rust. Bronze or brass being preferred for weapons and harnesses.

A cold wind blows: indicating a desire to get away from something, due to reptilian torpor that begins with the coming of cold. "A cold wind blows from that village," is the equivalent of a human saying, "I have a funny feeling about this."

Wrap my tail around that: is as vulgar as it sounds.

Tailless, bob-tailed, stump-tailed: a person who is humiliated. A lizardfolk with no tail is shunned by lizardfolk who see the tail as a symbol of strength and virility/fertility.

Scale polisher: one who tries too hard to fit in to human, demi-human, or humanoid society.

Warm nights!: a farewell wish. Singular indicates an expectation to see the other in the next day.

A fish in the net is worth two in the river.

Hold your breath: don't be impatient.

A deer drinking: prey animal as a target. "The human on the parapet is a deer drinking," means the lizardfolk could shoot/attack the target with little fear of reprisal.

Easy as a sunny day: peaceful, relaxing time.

[Yakk]

Baby-Crunch (great, amazing, wow)
Feast, then Burn (remember to fill your belly before you use fire to clean up the mess)
That name has teeth (sign of respect for the bearer of the name)
Flavor defines Virtue (you eat what tastes good - sort of like "I think therefore I am" of Lizardfolk philosophy)
Tomorrow it Rains (so bask in the sun today)
I lack hunger (You are safe from me, even though I am stronger than you. Can be stated even when you are obviously starving.)

I'm assuming Lizardfolk are an r-strategy species. They lay large numbers of eggs, the non-sentient babies hatch, and those that make it to adolescence are tamed and civilized. Eating the feral, pre-sentient hatchlings is part of keeping the numbers down.

[Beelzebub1111]

I like the idea of idioms that we normally have but mean a different thing:

"A Lame Duck": Simple "A Piece of Cake"

"Egg (someone) on": To belittle someone or treat them like a child

"Put all your Eggs in one basket": To take great care and responsibility for the good of many. To take great caution.

"The Dead of Night": Dawn. Literally: When night dies

"Dug one's own grave": Prepared to deal with the concequences of one's on actions

[brian 333]

Warm sand: this is an expression of good luck, sort of related to 'Best Wishes'. Warm sand in lizardfolk nests produces more females and reduces incubation time, while warm sand is also great for sunbathing. "We had warm sand on our journey," or "Warm sand until we meet again."

[D&D_Fan]

Emotions and Behaviour:
Crocodile Tears - "I'm not sad, I'm just cleaning my eyes."
Cold Blooded - Well adjusted, normal, sociable.
Warm Blooded - Hot tempered, irrational, unpredictable.

Insults for Non-Reptiles:
Meatbags.
Fleshies.
Thinskins.
Eggless.
Too many holes.
Softnails.

Insults for Fellow Reptiles:
Waste of sunlight.
Next time you swim, don't hold your breath.
You have no bite.
I hope the skies are cloudy wherever you go.
You're talking out of the wrong end.

Reassurances:
The sun will come back tomorrow.
You'll grow your tail back.
Your fear will shed, you just need to grow past it.
I hope a good meal finds you tonight, friend.