wet behind the ears

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First use appears c. 1850 in Pennsylvania, a calque of German feucht hinter den Ohren. From the drying of amniotic fluid of a baby after birth, specifically a newborn farm animal, whose ears are the last to dry, partly because it is licked dry by its mother everywhere else. Alternative forms also derive from German.

31 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Bulgarian: с жълто около устата (s žǎlto okolo ustata) — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Chinese Cantonese: 乳臭未乾 /乳臭未干 (jyu5 cau3 mei6 gon1) — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Chinese Mandarin: 乳臭未乾 /乳臭未干 (rǔxiùwèigān) — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Chinese Mandarin: 少不更事的 (shàobùgēngshìde, shàobùjīngshìde) — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Dutch: nat achter de oren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Finnish: kokematon — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Finnish: märkäkorva — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: grün hinter den Ohren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: noch grün hinter den Ohren sein — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: nicht trocken hinter den Ohren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: noch nicht trocken hinter den Ohren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: feucht hinter den Ohren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• German: noch feucht hinter den Ohren — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Hungarian: zöldfülű — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Hungarian: tejfölösszájú — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Hungarian: kezdő — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Hungarian: tapasztalatlan — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Icelandic: óharðnaður — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Icelandic: óreyndur — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Indonesian: ingusan — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Italian: alle prime armi — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Italian: muovere i primi passi — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Italian: essere un novellino — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Italian: di primo pelo — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Japanese: 尻が青い — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Latvian: vēl slapjš aiz ausīm — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Navajo: chąąmąʼii ádílʼį́ — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Norwegian: våt bak ørene — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Polish: mieć mleko pod nosem — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Russian: молоко́ на губа́х не обсо́хло (molokó na gubáx ne obsóxlo) — inexperienced, not seasoned
• Vietnamese: chân ướt chân ráo — inexperienced, not seasoned