Re:Body parts “fall asleep” in English. What about in other ...
by interfixus on Sunday February 18, 2018 @02:20AM
(#16404898)
As I said, I am quite possibly being led astray by my native language. Danish/Norwegian is so very, very close to English in so many areas of vocab, grammar, and idiom, it's sometimes hard to keep the instinctives of one from bleeding into the other.
I did search my memory before commenting, and came up blank: I have never heard about limbs falling asleep. Hence my initial question, which you hereby seem to have answered.
The answer is yes: having lived in 9 of the 50 US States in every cardinal (and sub) direction - as well as a stint in London - I’ve never encountered any confusion about this phrase. Limbs fall asleep. Or, a limb is asleep. But, if you’re sitting on your leg, and you know this to cut circulation, it would be unsurprising for you to say “it’s falling asleep” with the “degree” being the amount of paresthesia you expect to encounter when moving the limb.