Whether we say "colors of fuendi dogs, color'e fuendi dogs, or colori'e fuendi dogs" the meaning is the same. It is an expression in Sardinian whose literal meaning is: "Color of a dog that runs away".
An ironic and playful way of saying to indicate an ugly color, sometimes horrendous, indefinite and indefinable. A color that could be beige, a red tending to orange, light brown, ocher. We do not know.
We have to imagine a dog running so fast that we don't even understand what color it is.
However, although it is configured as an expression used purely in Sardinian language, its origins could have Catalan roots as can also be inferred from the work of Richard Gwyn, English writer, entitled "The Color of a Dog Running Away" (translated : color of escaping can) set in Barcelona, Catalonia.
It is also used in other Italian regions, such as Puglia, Campania, Calabria and Sicily. And Claudio Baglioni himself, in one of his songs called “Strip-tease” sings: “A little man dressed in the color of a dog who runs away”.
This is the new appointment with the weekly column in which Gianni Zanata talks about the meanings and origins of Sardinian idioms and expressions, traditions and curiosities.
(Unioneonline)