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"Spinning bad cotton", "violet modesty"... Do you know the origin of these expressions from our gardens?

2023-04-13T06:11:55.515Z


The flora has given rise to various flowery and fruity expressions which give a particular flavor to our language.


Nature has always been a source of inspiration for poets and language lovers.

From the Garden of Eden to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, from the golden apple of the Hesperides Garden to the roses of Ispahan, gardens have inspired poets and nurtured our dreams.

From these gardens were born proverbs, sayings, adages, pretty words and bad words that we now hear around the corner, read in novels or hum in songs.

To discover

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Read alsoIf you know these rare words, your French is precious

We have in mind several of these flowery and fruity expressions from myths, tales or our gardens: the famous

“apple of discord”

from Greek mythology;

the

"turnip"

to designate a work of art without interest or a very bad film;

the expression

"worth its weight in peanuts"

to describe an unexpected, comical aspect or to talk about someone a little ridiculous;

or even

"to arrive like a flower"

to say in an innocent, ingenuous and inopportune way.

The language teems with thousands of expressions associated with plants in the garden and orchard, fields and paths, woods and moors.

They are collected and explained by Françoise Guerard in

Large vegetable, queen of apples and wild herbs.

The secrets of 1001 floral and fruity expressions

(Éditions de l'Opportun).

If certain expressions are known to us, others are less so.

Anthology.

To be headed for trouble

This plant material, which dresses most of our clothes, has given rise to several derived expressions.

In the old days, in the 17th century, when it came to weaving, a fabric plagued by lint was said to be

“shed cotton”

.

In other words, this meant that this fabric was worn out and was living its last life there.

We used this expression to say that we were running to ruin.

It evolved, from the 19th century, to apply to people whose situation takes a bad turn in terms of health or financially.

A violet modesty

Why take this flower as a metaphor to qualify modesty?

To have a

“violet modesty”

is to be extremely modest.

This is how we describe shy and modest people.

However, the violet is a flowering plant in the undergrowth, in the shade, out of sight therefore.

It symbolizes discretion, modesty, humility.

In short, anything that evokes the desire to go unnoticed.

To be half fig, half grape

A person is said to be

“half fig, half grape”

when they have a mixed or ambiguous opinion on a subject.

Why combine these two fruits in a single expression?

The writer Maurice Rat, in his

Dictionary of traditional expressions and locutions

, gives a semblance of an answer: this expression

"would originate from a deception of the Corinthians who once took it into their heads to mix figs unduly with the reasons they sent to Venice”

.

In the Middle Ages, dried fruits were honored during Lent, a period of fasting observed by Christians.

The grape was considered a delicacy and appreciated, unlike the fig which was much more common and cheap.

It therefore happened that merchants added pieces of figs, heavy and inexpensive, in the raisins they sold in order to deceive customers.

Hence the expression

"half-fig, half-grape"

, simplified and replaced by

"mi"

from the 18th century.

To read also “Milk”, “created”, “stool”… Should we pronounce “é” or “è”?

For plums

When we realize something which, in the end, was useless or brought in nothing, we say that we will have done it all

“for nothing”

.

But where does this expression come from?

The word

“plum”

has been used since the 13th century to mean: a blow (

“he took a plum, a prune”

);

luck or bad luck as the case may be;

something worthless.

We have to go back to the first crusades, in the 12th century, to understand where this last meaning comes from.

Legend has it that the Crusaders, returning from the second crusade which was a failure around 1150, brought back some plum trees from Damascus.

The king, to whom they were reporting their expedition, is said to have exclaimed:

"Don't tell me you only went there for plums!"

, implying

“for nothing”

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-04-13

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