Are you a "K.O."? Have you been dealt a "low blow"? ... Without gloves or mouthguards, we use expressions from boxing vocabulary on a daily basis. This combat sport, with many variations qualified by geographical terms (English, French, Thai boxing ...), was popularized in France during the twentieth century, through famous figures such as Marcel Cerdan or Georges Carpentier. The development of radio and television introduced boxing into the daily lives of individuals, and into their language. Le Figaro invites you to rediscover five expressions that have escaped from boxing gyms.
To discover
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• Have punch
The punch designates, for a boxer, "the ability to unleash a violent blow, precise, capable of putting the opponent out of combat", according to the Treasury of the French language. The expression commonly refers to a dynamic state, of efficiency, in which all wood is fired. But it has its counterpart. "Lack of punch" which is not very assured and has few respondents.
• Work your opponent on the body
This expression evokes an interrogation scene from a gangster movie, where we can hear "We're going to work on him and he's going to spit the piece". It means, "We won't let it go until we have what we're looking for." However, it does come from boxing. "Working on the body" his opponent consists in concentrating his blows on the trunk of his opponent to have him to wear out.
• Let your guard down
Drunk! Your opponent takes advantage of your inattention to stick a "jab", a direct from the left, right on the nose. "Letting your guard down" often leads to painful punishment. In common parlance, this expression is used to refer to someone who is complacent in the face of the potential threat. In these cases, a coach shouts from a corner of our head or from the ring: "Watch out for your guard!"
• Being K.O.
"..., 9, 10, Knocked out!" The bell rings the end of the fight while your head still rings with your opponent's last shot. In English, knocked out literally means "knocked out", and refers to an expeditious way of losing a boxing match. The extension of its use to the everyday language has introduced it wherever we mean that we are tired, weak, sick: in short, that life sends us to the carpet - that is, that it puts you K.O.
•To throw in the towel
Synonymous with "giving up", we use this expression when we abandon out of desperation a task that we know in advance will fail. This expression appeared in the nineteenth century, in England, with the rules of modern boxing. The sponge is used by the coach to wipe and refresh the face of his boxer between two rounds. If he considers that he is no longer in a state to fight, he literally throws in the towel to let the referee know that the fight must be stopped.