Estoy enfermo de muerte

Question

Is this "I am sick to death"? él esta enfermo de muerto = He is sick to death? Is it an idiom? I wonder what the usage is for it. Gracias.

Hola, Jeezzle. What's the context? - Delores--Lindsey, Jun 1, 2010

The funny thing is, this girl is sick in bed, and looks like she is gonna die, but she also bored and says something like "I'm sick to death of all this" and I was like woah woah, that could really go either way. She is deathly ill and very bored of it. - jeezzle, Jun 1, 2010

The English equivalent could be "I'm sick and tired of all of this!" From what you wrote it sounds like it would have to be the fact that she's bored. She probably wouldn't lie around saying "Oh, I'm dying." But as you say...who knows? lol - Delores--Lindsey, Jun 1, 2010

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely, Goefc..."deathly ill".

Answer 2

I found 1100000 references to "enfermo de muerte" and without reading quite all of them, I got the impression that they meant "ill/sick to the point of death" or "terminally ill" as Delores/Google puts it.

Answer 3

Having read your contextual comments to the original question, I wonder - could the girl have been exaggerating? Was she saying that because she was bored and was just trying to get some attention?

They often do that here in Guatemala when it comes to illnesses! When describing a past illness, folks talk as if they, or their loved ones, just about died. In a few cases it may have been true, but many times they had a relatively minor illness.

Answer 4

Wait so is it "sick to death" like the English idiom or "deathly ill"? I'm gonna assume it's both at this point.

Deathly Ill - Gekkosan, Jun 2, 2010

Answer 5

No, "sick to death" is an idiomatic expression meaning "really fed up". See the Phrasebook associated with this site (under MORE) for one suggestion.

harto de is another way of expressing that you have had it "to the limit" with something.

Answer 6

Hmmmm. Interesting. I've always heard "está moribundo" in the case of someone who was dying. The phrase that you mention seems to indicate the same thing, doesn't it? Actually, the google translator says "terminally ill."