Hi,
Sometimes I come across the expression in ‘be fed up to here’ instead of the shorter form. Could you please tell me what the ‘to here’ refer to? Does it imply the speaker’s throat or gullet?
Many thanks in advance.
Haihao
Yes, “up to here” means the speaker’s throat. Usually when we say, “I’m fed up to here with it,” or, “I’m up to here with it,” or, “I’ve had it up to here,” we show where we’re fed up, by making a horizontal motion with our hand, palm down, right below our chin.
Sometimes we also say, “I’ve had it up to my ears,” or, “I’ve had it up to my eyeballs.” They all mean the same thing.
Thank you very much, Jamie, for your considerate interpretation and I am so happy to have got so many variations at the same time as well as the gesture that was precisely what I wanted. 
Haihao
We even go further up the head in Spain, as we say: ‘Estoy hasta la coronilla’ (literally ‘I’m fed up to the crown’). ‘Estoy hasta el mo?o’ (fed up to the bun – the one you can wear on your head) or ‘estoy hasta las narices’ (fed up to the nose) are other common expressions.
Some men prefer to use a vulgar term and don’t bother with the upper regions of the body: ‘Estoy hasta los huevos’ (or even worse). A mild variant form of this swearword would be ‘estoy hasta los mism?simos’.
As a PS to my previous post, and talking of swearwords, do the Japanese often use four-letter words or does the concept of swearing exist at all in their culture? They strike me as too polite and respectful in general to use this sort of language.
I think you are right, Conchita, on the fact that we often use four-Kanji (ancient Chinese character created mainly during the Han Dynasty) and we call it Yojijukugo (four-word idiom, most of them are from Chinese). Almost all of them don’t belong to the swearing realm but on the contrary more or less to proverb-like sayings. On the other hand, the concept of damning yet unfortunately exists in the Japanese language, comparatively less in expressions I guess though, and the most popular of which happens to be a four-word one (not considered as an idiom).
BTW, Speaking of ‘fed up to the bun’, it struck me that maybe the Chinese people would say ‘Yan Fan Tou Ding’ (fed up through the top of one’s head) but I really cannot think out a familiar term in Japanese! Oh, I am terribly sorry. 
In fact, IMO, there are far more four-word idioms in Chinese and the Chinese people are far more fond of using them than Japanese.
Haihao
In English we say we’ve had a snoot full of something. “Snoot” means nose.
Hi,
I’ll climb on this bandwa(g)gon with one more:
Fed up to the back teeth.
Alan
Hello all teachers,
Would you pls tell me if my expression is correct: Somebody fed(s) up with Sth or just simply as I’ve had it (“it” means sth people don’t want or dislike or make them feel angry…
In China,we do have large numbers of four-word idioms, we also have special dictionary for Idioms,but i really can’t associate any idiom with the meaning of “'be fed up to sth”.
Thanks,
edwin
Welcome, Edwin!
In the idiom “fed up”, the word “fed” is the past participle of “feed”, and “to be fed up” is in the passive voice. We say that somebody is fed up with something.
I’ve had it means, I am at the end of my tolerance of something. The word “it” has no meaning. In a full sentence, we would say, “I’ve had it with…”, as in, “I’ve had it with all that loud noise!” “I’ve had it with his passing gas all the time!” “I’ve had it with this rotten job!”
What about “feich?ng y?nju?n”? (“Fei” has a high tone there, but the message board software won’t accept the letter.)
Hi Jamie,
I was really surprised to see your Chinese Pin Yin! :o But anyway I would very much like to agree with you, with my poor Chinese though, to your suggestion! ‘‘feich?ng y?nju?n’’ literally means ‘extremely boresome’, am I right? By the way, how could you type the tones onto the letters? Does it need some software? Thank you.
Haihao
I’m not sure what it means. I just found it in one of my dictionaries.
I don’t know how to do it in Windows. I use a Macintosh, and all I have to do is change to a phonetic keyboard or use the character palette to insert any character into any program. I can type Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, anything I want. The trouble is that the message board hasn’t kept up with the technology and won’t accept the characters.
I tried it on my Windows but didn’t succeed. I am afraid Windows doesn’t have this function without a software. Thank you all the same, Jamie, for the information.
Haihao
Hello Jamie& Haihao,
Thanks so much for your help,
Yes, we do say “feich?ng y?nju?n” when we feel boresome,the words “feich?ng” is an adverb and with the meaning of extremely,very etc.But “feich?ng y?nju?n” isn’t a four-word idiom,for example,we also use “feich?ng hao” to express the meaning “very good” or even “well done” etc.(sorry,i also can not type the tones onto the letter “hao”).
edwin
Xiexie Nin, Mr. Edwin, Nin Jiang de dui Wo henyou Bangzhu!
By the way, your location Zhejiang makes me think of Hangzhou. I guess there is a saying in China: Up in heaven is there a paradise, down on earth are there Suzhou and Hangzhou (Shang You Tian Tang, Xia You Su Hang, 4+4 word idiom?). Am I right?
Haihao
Wow,Mister Haihao,you are adept at the Chinese pin yin! I was so surprised!
Yes,you’re right,hangzhou is the provincial capital of zhejiang.And perhaps “Shang You Tian Tang, Xia You Su Hang” is a rhetorical eight-word saying,but still not four-word idiom,hehe…
Well,Mister haihao, i do find that you’re really good at linguistics, and now i’d like to use some four-word idioms to describe you:Bo xue duo cai,Bo wen duo shi, maybe the english meaning is:well learned and have a retentive memory and informed…etc…
edwin
Thank you very much for your compliments, Mr. Edwin, though I feel a little Can Kui… :oops:
In fact I learned Chinese in Gui Guo for a long time and I have been to Suzhou and Hangzhou several times. I always like to have China as my ‘grandmotherland’ because she is much older than Japan and Japan has learned a lot from her.
Haihao