Le mot du jour : “comme une traînée de poudre”
In these days
where newspapers on both side of the Channel talk a lot about viruses
and epidemics, you can often find that expression : “Le virus se répand
comme une traînée de poudre”
The word for word translation would be :
“The virus spreads like a trail of gunpowder”. I think the English
language uses “like wildfire”, which is very close.
When I was a child, each time I heard these words I would imagine a pirate’s ship full of barrels of gunpowder on the verge of exploding.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that with this new virus. Wishing you all to stay healthy!