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  What it means

  Literally “naked as a Turkish saint.” Means completely broke, penniless, or destitute — without a penny to one’s name. A colourful way of saying someone has absolutely nothing.

  Vocabulary

  • goły — naked, bare, penniless
  • święty — saint
  • turecki — Turkish

  Grammar note

  'Jak' introduces the comparison. The phrase is fixed — 'święty turecki' does not refer to any real saint.

  Cultural context

  The origin is obscure — 'Turkish saint' is a deliberately absurd image, since Islam has no saints in the Catholic sense. The strangeness of the phrase is part of its charm.

  Intermediate

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