Outdated, out of fashion, they appear more and more enigmatic over time.
When we find them while reading an author from the past century, whether Jules Renard, Colette, Jean Giono or Léon-Paul Fargue, their meaning can sometimes escape us.
What can an expression like “number your giblets”
mean
?
We find it in
Aurélien
by Louis Aragon:
“It must be said what is, I had the venette, I was sure of staying there, I counted my kills.
When it sucked hard, I sweated everywhere.”
Answer: In times of war, before the battle, there was fear of losing one or more of its members.
We numbered them to be able to recognize them.
This must be seen as a form of black humor.
Normally, this expression expresses the fact of being ready in the face of a threat or justified concern.
To discover
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Also read Will you get a 10/10 on this test on the origin of French words from elsewhere?
Expressions in danger
In his
100 expressions to save
(Albin Michel, 2008), Bernard Pivot attempts to rescue these expressions, born for the most part from popular verve, from oblivion.
As some people save animals, plants or trees threatened with extinction, the writer takes a liking to words or expressions in danger.
“Expressions are even more dated and fragile than words [...],”
he introduces.
It's a huge tribe where, every year, there are births and words.
Dictionaries record their civil status.
But, without falling into sentimentalism, it is a shame that expressions that we have savored from the pens of good writers, in whose works they remain, become anemic and then, “good evening company!”
Expressions like
“swallowing your quid”
,
“getting the hang of it”
,
“cutting a bib”
or
“washing your head”
are therefore unearthed .
Do you know their true meaning?
Le Figaro
invites you to (re)discover them in a short test.
So, will you get a 10/10?