Is there an American English idiom for Russian "die of/from happiness"?
I thought I would die of happiness when I heard this wonderful song!
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2I could die from happiness is perfectly acceptable in English. If you are looking for an alternative phrase, please specify such.– DocCommented Nov 18, 2013 at 16:06
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1The phrase appears to be about 100 years old in English. The questioner might want to compare the frequency of the two expressions in both English and Russian although I am not sure how large the Russian corpus is at Google's NGRAM Viewer.– Michael Owen SartinCommented Nov 18, 2013 at 18:24
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1@Doc Post that as an answer.– user867Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 2:48
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3 Answers
One such expression which is similar is
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when ...
This is attested in Macmillan:
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven spoken
used for emphasizing that you enjoyed something very much
and it's been used in popular culture too.
It is predicated on the idea that something that good cannot possibly occur on earth, but only in heaven.
answered Nov 18, 2013 at 16:10
The commonest idiom relating to happiness and afterlife that springs to mind is in seventh heaven meaning a state of extreme happiness or joy. The phrase originates from the concept of the seventh being the highest of heavens in Islamic and Cabalist doctrines.
A related and equally common idiom is on cloud nine. If you are not looking for the exact word death that is. Then of course there is that phrase die laughing, which is not quite the same as happiness though.
answered Nov 18, 2013 at 22:33
"I could die from happiness" is a perfectly acceptable phrase in English - and one that I've heard used. Most variants thereof would also be acceptable, such as "I thought I would die from happiness", "I felt so happy I could die", etc.
