Le mot du jour : prendre en grippe

“Prendre en grippe” means to take a strong dislike to somebody or someone.
When you translate it word for word, it goes like this : to take as the flu.
Before being the flu, “la grippe” was first a kind of hook, then a whim, a caprice, and it’s only in the XVIIIth century that it started to mean the disease.
So basically, when you say : “je ne l’aime pas du tout, je l’ai pris(-e) en grippe tout de suite” (I don’t like him/her at all, I took a dislike to him/her straight away), you are actually saying that these people are as unpleasant for you as the flu!

Le mot du jour : “passer un savon”

“Passer un savon” (to brush with soap) is an expression that means to scold someone and not at all, as you would expect, to give a soap to someone.
So now that soap has become rare and precious, if a French person says “Je vais te passer un savon !”, don’t expect them to kindly share their soap with you but rather to give you an earful!

I am not sure where this expression comes from, but it always brings to my mind the image of a mum energetically washing her reluctant child 😀

Le mot du jour : “laver son linge sale en famille”

In these troubled times where lots of us are stuck at home with the whole family, here is a useful expression 😀

“Laver son linge sale en famille” can be translated by “to wash the dirty laundry inside the family”. It means dealing with problems at home (or work) discreetly, to avoid any gossip.
It carries the idea of keeping things secret. It probably goes back to the time where people in villages would do their laundry at the washing place, which was a well known hotspot for local gossip! If you were doing your washing at home, it meant you probably had something to hide…

Le mot du jour : “Comme un coq en pâte”

“Comme un coq en pâte” means “like a rooster in crust”. This expression goes back to the 17th century, where roosters were considered very fine meat, and the farmers would take particularly good care of them. Later on, the image of the rooster cooked in crust with only its head showing was compared to a man comfortable in his bed. From there, it started to describe a spoiled man, someone living with no worries.
As yesterday was the International Day for Women’s Rights, let’s reflect on the fact that in French there is no such thing as “une poule en pâte” (poule = hen) 😕

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!

Le mot du jour : “avoir un cœur d’artichaut”

“Avoir un cœur d’artichaut” can be translated by “to have an artichoke’s heart”.
It is used to describe someone who fall easily and often in love. It is usually someone sensitive, with a romantic heart. So you could say that a person with “un coeur d’artichaut” gives his/her heart as easily as the artichoke gives away its leaves…

Le mot du jour : “raconter des salades”

Raconter des salades means to tell lies.
“Raconter” is to tell a tale and “les salades” are all the kind of leaves you can eat (lettuce, chicory, spinach…) but also the dishes like “salade niçoise”

It’s not very clear for me why salads would mean lies. Maybe because they look lovely and fresh but leave you still hungry at the end? 😉

Anyway, if a French person says : “Il m’a raconté des salades”, it means someone made an elaborate lie, a little bit like spinning a yarn in English.

Le mot du jour : taper dans l’œil

Slightly different from last week’s “tape-à-l’œil”, “taper dans l’œil” (to hit in the eye) is used to talk about things you’ve noticed favorably.

Ex : J’ai vu ce manteau en vitrine, il m’a tout de suite tapé dans l’œil ! (I saw that coat in the window, I liked it straight away!)

It works for people too, you can perfectly say that someone “vous a tapé dans l’œil”. I have to admit though, that I prefer the English expression “easy on the eye” because it sounds much softer! 😀

Le mot du jour : “tape-à-l’oeil”

When a French person says about something that it is “tape-à-l’oeil” (something like “slap in the eye”), it describes something flashy, showy. It’s not a compliment and is considered the opposite of “chic”.

Ex : “Je n’aime pas ses nouvelles chaussures, elles sont très tape-à-l’oeil” (I don’t like her new shoes, they are very flashy).

Next week I’ll explain another expression almost similar but with a different meaning : taper dans l’oeil.

Le mot du jour : étouffe-chrétien

Un étouffe-chrétien (christian choker maybe?) is usually said of a stodgy meal. Nothing against Christians here apparently, but rather the idea that a meal could be so heavy that even good people like the Christians wouldn’t survive it!
It is definitely not a compliment for the food, so if you come across a dish described as “étouffe-chrétien”, stay away! 😝