Le mot du jour : poser un lapin
I am going to stay in the animal world this week with this expression that could be translated by “to put down a rabbit” but in fact means “to not show up at a rendez-vous without warning”
I looked up to find the roots of the sentence and there are two different ones.
The first one says it appeared in the XVIIth century where a “lapin” (rabbit) was also a word to describe a story totally made up, a fib.
The other one is from the end of the XIXth where “un lapin” meant a refusal to pay and by extension a refusal to pay the prostitute you just had a “rendez-vous” with. Then the meaning evolved and now works for any situation where someone doesn’t turn up to a meeting without giving any explanation.
All in all, it’s not very flattering neither for the poor rabbit nor the person waiting for hours in vain!So if you are ever in need to say “Il/Elle m’a posé un lapin !” don’t forget to use your most offended tone 😉
