erinja:Not sure if it was borrowed from a saying in another language but it made sense to me when I heard it and people seem to know what I mean when I say it.

In Polish "rzucać okiem" (ĵeti okulon) means the same.

erinja:There aren't a ton of Esperanto idioms but there are some.

I frequently say "ĵeti okulon" (to throw an eye). I usually use it to mean to take a brief look at something, glance at something. I didn't make it up, I must have picked it up somewhere and it does get hits on Google. Not sure if it was borrowed from a saying in another language but it made sense to me when I heard it and people seem to know what I mean when I say it.

Swedish has the same expression "kasta ett öga", with the same meaning. In Wictionary I also found: "echarle un ojo a algo" and "Échale un ojo a este texto", where it also has the same meaning. (Échale is obviously a misprinting.)

Rugxdoma:"kasta ett öga"

This reminds me of an English equivalent, "cast an eye [over/on]"

I'd be mildly surprised if Erinja were unfamiliar with it, as it's a fairly pervasive.

Duko:

apok2:Ekde februaro de ĉi-jaro mi jam perdis multe da pezo -- 61 funtojn precize. Mi intencas perdi aliajn 17 funtojn por atingi 190 funtojn. Mi sentas min multe pli sana kaj mi deziras afiŝi noton sur la fridujo per la mesaĝo "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." Kiel oni diras tion esperante? Mi povas komenci kun la vortoj "Nenio gustas tiel bona kiel.... Sed mi ne povas fini la frazon.

Since February of this year I have lost a lot of weight -- 61 pounds to be exact. I intent to lose another 17 pounds in order to reach 190 pounds. I feel much healthier and I want to post a note on the refrigerator with the message "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." How do you say that in Esperanto? I can start with the words "Nenio gustas tiel bona kiel... But I cannot finish the sentence.

Congratulations

How about something like this?
Nenies gusto bonas kiel la sento de esti maldika.
Nenies gusto bonas pli ol la sento de maldiki.

Dankon pro la gratulon, Duko. (Thanks for the congratulations.)

As for translating "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels" is concerned, I don't know about using 'nenies'. Would that fit in this situation? I thought that had more the meaning of "no-one's, nobody's". Esperanto is full of surprises for me, though.

I posted my question on this thread because, 1) I didn't know how to translate it without using estanta or some compound verb form, and 2) while not an idiom (I don't think it is, anyway), I didn't think it was inappropriate to post it here.

That is a common expression for those who are trying to lose weight or trying not to gain weight. It may have to be rewritten in order to make sense in Esperanto.

Thanks for the help.

Not sure about them, but here are some more attempts at it:

La plezuro de manĝado neniam pli bonas ol la sento de maldikeco.

Manĝo ne kaŭzas pli plezuro ol maldikeco.

Manĝi estas neniam pli bona ol senti maldike.

Nenia manĝajo gustas bone kiel maldikeco sentigas bone.

xdzt:Not sure about them, but here are some more attempts at it:

La plezuro de manĝado neniam pli bonas ol la sento de maldikeco.

Manĝo ne kaŭzas pli plezuro ol maldikeco.

Manĝi estas neniam pli bona ol senti maldike.

Nenia manĝajo gustas bone kiel maldikeco sentigas bone.

Thanks, xdzt. You gave me some good ideas so I checked lernu's vortaro and found some words that I didn't know existed. So... here's a few possibilities that will do me for now.

Manĝo ne kaŭzas/donas pli plezuro ol maldikeco,
-- A meal doesn't cause/give more pleasure than thinness.
Manĝi estas neniam pli bona ol senti makdike, -- Eating is never better than feeling thin.
Nenio gustas tiel bona kiel senti maldike, -- Nothing tastes as good as feeling thin.
Nenia manĝaĵo gustas tiel bona kiel senti maldike,
-- No kind of food tastes as good as feeling thin.

I always get a feeling of accomplishment from learning something new. Thanks.

Small correction, pli bona ol (might be just your typo)

I wonder, shouldn't you have an adverb after "gustas"? I know that in English you'd say "It tastes good" instead of "It tastes well", but in EO I'd go for "Gxi gustas bone" because "bone" describes the verb.

The French say jeter un coup d'oeil, Erinja (glance/take a quick look). We say cast an eye over. Perhaps the same metaphor exists in a number of European languages.

I suppose the less idiomatic translation would be preni/fari ekrigardon sur.

As far as I know, there are only a few natives (native speakers) of Esperanto.

Yes, and they don't have much influence on the language.

However there are many polyglots in the Esperanto-speaking community. So there is quite a high awareness of how other languages handle things and this can bleed into Esperanto usage.

There are Esperanto compounds that are well established in the language that you might consider idiomatic, in the sense that their specific meaning is not that obvious from the components.

Eldoni libron (to publish a book, not to distribute it). Rideti (to smile, not to chuckle). Aliĝilo (form for enrolling for a congress).

But the general tendency of the language is to be plonkingly literal in the matter of turns of phrase. In Esperanto 'pluvegas' rather than raining cats and dogs.

How about "fajfi pri"? Is this an idiom or slang? I ran across it in the "Jen nia IJK" course, chapter 9 and had to google the expression to make any sense out of it. The wiki article said that it came from a similar German expression.

This is why it is a bad idea to use such expressions in Esperanto. It takes some searching to interpret them (if you are lucky enough to even find an answer).