"
I'm just asking you to do it for me, it's not the sea to drink!"
How many times have we used this expression to express the derisory (innocuous, ridiculous!) Aspect of our request?
An insurmountable difficulty
To find its origin, let's go back to the 17th century, and reread the fable
Les Deux Chiens et l'Âne mort
by Jean de La Fontaine.
The latter then uses it in the affirmative form:
"If I rounded up my States!"
If I could fill my coffers with ducats!
If I learned Hebrew, science, history!
All this is the sea to drink ”
.
The metaphor refers to a business impossible to achieve,
"at the cost of often insurmountable difficulties (such as, for example, attending without yawning a two-hour conference on the cultivation of beetroot in the plains of Tajikistan)"
, laughingly analyzed Georges Planelles.
Evolution of his job
As often in the French language, the way of saying this expression has evolved.
From now on, it is only said in the negative form.
The latter sheds more light on the supposed laziness of the interlocutor, who makes a whole world of an insignificant task.
