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If you know the hidden meaning of these words, you love the French language

2021-04-09T05:25:54.595Z


“Chocolate”, “vinaigrette”… These words have a second meaning. do you know them?


What is the connection between a confectionery and a coffin?

And between a horse-drawn carriage and a salad dressing?

Like this secret food that makes a banal cooking recipe tastier, the French language is surprising.

The words which compose it often designate several realities, sometimes very distant from each other.

This is what makes its flavor!

Anthology.

● Stove

Fried pancakes, fried eggs, chestnuts by the fire ... The pan is an essential tool in a kitchen ... and in a cemetery.

Do you know what a

"funeral stove" is

?

In the Catholic religion, it designates a

"funeral sheet of black color for an adult, white for a child, which covers the coffin during a funeral ceremony"

, indicates the thesaurus.

Formerly, assistants held the cords of the sheet during the procession, until the burial of the deceased.

The frying pan is not only the prerogative of funeral ceremonies.

It is also synonymous with festive events!

In the past,

the white veil that brides wore above their heads

was called a

“stove”

.

This word was used in the French regions, when religious nuptial ceremonies were held,

"most often held by young people, relatives or friends."

● Dressing

Madame de Pompadour loved it.

Not the sauce that adorns our salads.

But of this

"little car with two wheels, reminiscent of a sedan chair, pulled by a man."

It is to Louis XV's favorite that we owe these carriages, which she imagined to

"go faster to the Trianon when she was in Versailles"

, tells the historian Franck Ferrand.

The

"vinaigrettes"

were

"extremely light and thin"

and

"sneaked all over the place."

Also baptized

"wheelbarrow"

or

"rental wheelbarrow"

, its name is derived from

vinegar

,

"because of its resemblance to small vinegar cars"

, specifies the Treasury of the French language.

● Chocolate Box

You never know what to expect.

Infamously tasting plum liqueur?

Delicious caramel fondant?

The choice is difficult.

The result ... doubtful.

Chocolate boxes don't just contain sweets.

In slang, it is also a

"coffin covered with a brown canvas"

.

The Goncourt Brothers use the formula in their Journal in 1860:

"We are present at the visit and we see a package tied at both ends put in the chocolate box, which is a dead woman."

Chocolate is popular in our kitchens, and in our expressions.

It is here synonymous with bitterness.

The formula

"to be chocolate"

testifies to this: it means

"to be caught, disappointed, duped"

.

● Niche

We know this

"little shelter where the dog lies"

.

But did you know that a niche is also a

“malicious joke”

, a

“prank that we do on someone, usually without nastiness”

?

A

"niche"

is a

"catch"

, a

"joke"

, a

"farce"

.

Balzac writes in Le Père Goriot:

"I took them [my daughters] on my knees, I made them a thousand annoyances, niches."

In the 14th century, the verb

"to nest"

meant

"to be silly, to waste time

.

"

This meaning is borrowed from the verb

"to nest"

, to make a nest, because

"the making of a nest represents a very long work"

, specifies the CNRTL.

● Tobacco

This is a popular word in Paname's slang.

Idioms with

"tobacco"

abound in this lexicon: there is of course

"to beat someone up"

, to say

"to beat, to beat up (someone who cannot defend himself)"

.

We also

“make a splash”

, when we get

“great success”

.

But do you know the

"blow of tobacco"

?

Dreaded by sailors, it is

"a short and violent storm"

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-09

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