Idiom "sweat bullets"-----influence of German?

[James Smith]

Would a German folk belief be more likely to relate to
a zoo animal or to deeply held religius conviction?
Seems more likely "Blut schwitzen" would come from the
image of Christ sweating blood in Gethsemane, although
Luther's translation may come out different than the
KJV translation.

"Luke 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground."

--- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
...
>
> Gerald Cohen
> P.S. The German expression "Blut schwitzen"
> evidently derives from the folk belief that the
> hippopotamus sweats blood.
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society -
> http://www.americandialect.org
>


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