Gourme
Ce jeune homme jette sa gourme = That young man is sowing his wild oats.
Gourme
Ce jeune homme jette sa gourme = That young man is sowing his wild oats.
Goût
*Des goûts et des couleurs il ne faut (pas) discuter = There is no disputing about tastes.
*À chacun son goût = Tastes differ.
[Colloquially the à is omitted and the phrase becomes chacun son goût. The Dictionnaire de l’Académie gives: Chacun a son goût.]
Je n’y vois goutte = I cannot see at all.
*Goutte à goutte on emplit la cuve = Many a little makes a mickle.
*Ils se ressemblent comme deux gouttes d’eau = They are as like as two peas.
C’est une goutte d’eau dans la mer = It is a drop in the ocean.
Boire la goutte (fam.) = To have a drop; To take a nip.
Payer la goutte (fam.) = To stand something to drink.
Grâce
Faites-moi grâce de vos observations, je vous en prie = Pray spare me your remarks.
Grain
Veillez au grain = Keep a sharp look-out.
Avoir un grain de folie = To be a little cracked.
Graine
Grand
*Les grands sont les plus exposés aux coups du sort = High winds blow on high hills.
Faire quelque chose en grand = To do something on a large scale.
Grandeur
Un buste de grandeur naturelle = A life-size bust.
Gré
*Bon gré, mal gré = Whether you wish or not; Nolens volens; Willy-nilly.
Cette maison a été vendue de gré à gré = That house was sold by private contract.
Il le fera de gré ou de force = He will have to do it whether he likes it or not.
Il venait moitié de gré, moitié de force = He came somewhat reluctantly.
De son plein gré = Of his own accord.
De plein gré = Voluntarily.
Nous vous en saurons bon gré = We shall be obliged to you for it.
Je me sais bon gré de ne l’avoir pas fait = I am thankful I did not do it.
*Attacher le grelot = To bell the cat.
[This phrase arises from the fable (La Fontaine, ii. 2) of the rats who held a council as to how they might best defend themselves from the cat. They resolved to hang a bell round his neck, so that they might hear him coming and run away. But the difficulty was to find a volunteer “to bell the cat.” In Scottish history Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus (1449-1514), was called Bell-the-Cat. James III. used to make favourites of architects and masons. The Scotch nobles held a council in the Church of Lauder for the purpose of putting down these upstarts. Lord Gray asked who would bell the cat. “That will I,” said Douglas, and fearlessly he put the minions to death in the King’s presence. Compare Scott, Marmion, v. 14. The Greek equivalent, Ξυρεῖν λέοντα (= to shave the lion) occurs in Plato, Republic, 341 C. The refrain of Eustace Deschamps’ Ballade 58 is: “Qui pendra la sonnette au chat?”]
Grenier
Grippe
Il m’a pris en grippe = He has taken a dislike to me.
Gris
Il en a vu de grises = He had an unpleasant time of it.
Il lui en a fait voir de grises = He plagued him terribly.
Grive
*Faute de grives on mange des merles = Half a loaf is better than no bread. (See Aimer.)
Gros
Ils se sont dit de gros mots = They came to high words; They insulted (slanged) one another.
La servante fait le gros de la besogne (or, la grosse besogne) = The servant does the heavy work.
Il n’a qu’un gros bon sens = He has only plain common-sense.
Vous avez touché la grosse corde = You have come to the main point.
Vendre en gros et en détail = To sell wholesale and retail.
Grue
Il m’a fait faire le pied de grue pendant deux heures = He made me wait two hours for him; I was dancing attendance on him for two hours.
[“Faites vous sus un pied toute la nuict la grue?”
Régnier, Sat. xi.]
Guerre
*À la guerre comme à la guerre = One must take things as they come; We must take the rough with the smooth.
Je l’ai fait de guerre lasse = Weary of resistance I did it for the sake of peace and quiet.
*Qui terre a, guerre a = Much coin, much care; Much land, many lawsuits.
[Voltaire’s variant was: “Qui plume a, guerre a.”]
Ça, c’est de bonne guerre = He has only used fair means to defend himself (or, attack you); He has acted within his rights, you cannot complain.
Guide
Mener la vie à grandes guides = (lit.) To drive life four in hand; (fig.) To live a very fast life.
Guillot
*Qui croit guiller Guillot, Guillot le guille =
“He that seeks others to beguile
Is oft overtaken in his wile.”
The biter bit.
[“For often he that will begyle
Is gyled with the same gyle,
And thus the gyler is begyled.”
Gower, Confessio Amantis, 135.
“For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar.”
Hamlet, iii. 4.]
Guise
Il fait (or, agit) toujours à sa guise = He always goes his own way; He always acts according to his own sweet will.
Habit
*L’habit ne fait pas le moine = The cowl does not make the friar; The coat does not make the gentleman.
Prendre l’habit = To become a monk or a nun (of the latter, To take the veil).
Habitué
Ce monsieur est un de nos habitués = That gentleman is one of our regular customers.
Hache
Cela est fait à coups de hache (or, serpe) = That is done clumsily, roughly.
Hacher
Je les hacherais menu comme chair à pâté = I would make mincemeat of them.
Haleine
Halle
Le langage des Halles = Billingsgate.
[Also: des injures de carrefour.]
Hallebarde
Cela rime comme hallebarde et miséricorde = That does not rhyme at all.
[The usual explanation of this expression is, that, on the death of the verger of St. Eustache, one of his friends—a small shopkeeper of the neighbourhood—wished to write an epitaph for his tomb. Being entirely ignorant of the rules of verse, he composed the following:—
“Ci-gît mon ami Mardoche
Il a voulu être enterré à Saint Eustache
Il y porta trente-deux ans la hallebarde
Dieu lui fasse miséricorde.”
(Par son ami, J. Cl. Bombet, 1727.)
But in reality the proverb is much older. It dates from the time of the old versifiers, one of whose rules was that two consonants followed by an e mute were sufficient to form a feminine rhyme. This led to abuses like the above, and this rule was superseded by another, that the vowel preceding the two consonants must be alike in both cases.]
Hanter
Dis-moi qui tu hantes, je te dirai qui tu es = A man is known by his company; Birds of a feather flock together.
Haro
Crier haro sur quelqu’un = To raise an outcry against any one.
[“À ces mots on cria haro sur le baudet.”
La Fontaine, Fables, vii. 1.
The origin of the word haro is disputed; Littré quotes Diez, who connects it with O.H.G. hera = here. The old opinion was that it was derived from Ha-Raoul, an appeal to Rollo, or Hrolf, first Duke of Normandy, and a mighty lawgiver. However, within living recollection the cry of Ha-Ro! à l’aide, mon Prince! was used in the Channel Islands as a protection against force and fraud, when no other defence was possible. See a curious tale in “The Gossiping Guide to Jersey,” by J. Bertrand Payne, London, 1863, p. 15.]
Hasard
*Trop de hâte gâte tout = The more haste, the less speed.
[Also: Plus on se hâte, moins on avance; Hâtez-vous lentement (Lat. Festina lente); Assez tôt si bien; and the English popular proverb, “Do nothing hastily save catching of fleas.”]
Hâter
*Ouvrage hâté, ouvrage gâté = Haste makes waste.
Haut
Tomber de son haut = (fig.) To be thunder-struck.
Regarder de haut en bas = To treat contemptuously; To look down upon with contempt.
Il y a du haut et du bas dans la vie = Life has its ups and downs.
Haut le pied! = Be off!
Herbe
*Mauvaise herbe croît toujours = Ill weeds grow apace.
Votre rival vous coupera l’herbe sous le pied = Your rival will cut you out, will take the wind out of your sails, will cut the ground from under your feet.
L’herbe sera bien courte s’il ne trouve à brouter = It will go hard if he does not pick up a living; He would live on nothing.
C’est un avocat en herbe = He is studying for the bar; He is a sucking barrister.
A l’heure qu’il est on ne le fait plus = Nowadays it is no longer done.
A l’heure qu’il est il doit savoir la nouvelle = By this time no doubt he has heard the news.
Faites-le sur l’heure = Do it this very minute.
Je partirai tout à l’heure = I will start presently.
Je l’ai vu tout à l’heure = I saw him just now, not long ago.
A la bonne heure! = Well done!; That’s right!; Capital!; That is something like!
Le quart d’heure de Rabelais = The moment of payment (or, suspense).
[On returning from Italy, Rabelais found himself in the south of France with no more money to continue his journey to Paris. He had dined well at an inn, and while waiting for his reckoning, he packed up some dust in small packets which he labelled, “Poison for the King,” “Poison for the Dauphin,” and so on. The innkeeper noticing these packets and their terrible inscriptions, informed the police, who took Rabelais to Paris free of charge to suffer the penalty of treason. When he was brought before the King, the monarch laughed heartily at the tale and let him go free.]
Passer un mauvais quart d’heure = To have a bad time of it.
Histoire
Voilà bien des histoires pour si peu de chose! = What a fuss about nothing.
Voilà bien une autre histoire! = That is quite another thing.
Histoire (or, Chansons) que tout cela! = That is all stuff and nonsense.
Le plus beau de l’histoire c’était qu’il n’en savait rien = The best of the joke was he knew nothing about it.
Histoire de rire = 1. For the fun of the thing. 2. It was only a joke.
Hommage
Hommage de l’auteur = With the author’s compliments.
Homme
*L’homme propose et Dieu dispose = Man proposes, God disposes.
[Also: “L’homme s’agite et Dieu le mène.”
Fénelon, Sermon pour la Fête de l’Épiphanie, 1685.
“A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.”—Proverbs xvi. 9.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them how we will.”—Hamlet, v. 2.
German: Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt.]
*Le style c’est l’homme = Style is the man himself; Like author, like book.
[“Ces choses sont hors de l’homme, le style est l’homme même.”—Buffon, Discours de Réception à l’Académie, 1753. There has been much discussion as to what Buffon really did write, whether le style est l’homme même or le style est DE l’homme même. In most editions after that of Didot (1843) the latter form will be found, whilst in editions from 1800-1843 the phrase is absent altogether. In the Recueil de l’Académie it is printed le style est l’homme même, and of this the proofs were probably corrected by Buffon himself. There is a small pamphlet, Discours prononcé dans l’Académie française, par M. de Buffon, le samedi 25 août 1753, which is probably earlier still, in which it is also printed thus. However this may be, the phrase “le style c’est l’homme,” which Buffon assuredly did not write, has become a French proverb, and is in everyday use.]
Honneur
Nous jouons pour l’honneur = We are playing for love.
*Un homme d’honneur n’a que sa parole = An honest man’s word is as good as his bond.
Il fait honneur à ses affaires (comm.) = He meets all his engagements.
Il ne prétend à votre fille qu’en tout bien tout honneur = He has honourable intentions towards your daughter.
Honte
Nous lui avons fait honte = 1. We caused him to feel ashamed of himself. 2. He was ashamed of us.
Honteux
*Jamais honteux n’eut belle amie = Faint heart never won fair lady.
*Il n’y a que les honteux qui perdent = Nothing ask, nothing have.
Hors ligne = Standing out from the rest; Out of the common run; Beyond comparison; Incomparable.
Ce peintre est hors concours = That artist is no longer a competitor (having already received the highest award).
Hôte
*Qui compte sans son hôte compte deux fois = He who reckons without his host must reckon again.
Huis
A huis clos = With closed doors; in camera.
Image
Cette petite fille est sage comme une image = That little girl is very quiet, is as good as gold.
Importance
Faire l’homme d’importance = To play the consequential; To give oneself airs; To be pompous.
Importer
Qu’importe? = No matter! It is of no consequence.
Que m’importe? = What is that to me?
Peu importe = It does not much matter.
Venez n’importe quand = Come at any time, no matter when, whenever you please.
Impossible
*A l’impossible nul n’est tenu = There is no doing impossibilities; No living man all things can.
Index
Les grévistes mirent cette boutique à l’index = The strikers boycotted that shop.
[The Index Expurgatorius is a list of books compiled for the Pope which Roman Catholics are forbidden to read.]
Injure
Ils se sont dit mille injures = They abused one another like pickpockets.
Vous lui faites injure = You wrong him.
Inscrire
Je m’inscris en faux contre cette assertion = I emphatically deny the truth of that assertion.
Intelligence
Vivre en bonne intelligence avec quelqu’un = To live on good terms with some one.
Intention
*L’intention est réputée pour le fait = The will is taken for the deed.
J’ai mis ce livre de côté à voire intention = I put that book on one side especially for you (to read, to see).
Jamais
Au grand jamais = Never, no never.
Jambe
Il court à toutes jambes = He is running as fast as his legs will carry him.
[Compare: à toute bride, à toute vapeur, à toute vitesse.]
Il a pris ses jambes à son cou = He took to his heels.
Il a joué des jambes = He took to flight.
Il a des jambes de quinze ans = He still walks well.
Cela ne lui rend pas la jambe mieux faite! (ironic.) = And a lot of good that will do him!
Cela vous ferait une belle jambe (ironic.) = A fine lot of good that will do you.
Il a les jambes en manche de veste (fam.) = He is bow-legged.
Il le fera par dessous la jambe = He will do it with the greatest ease (or, carelessly).
Il a des fourmis dans les jambes = He is fidgety, restless.
Jaune
Jaune comme un coing = As yellow as a guinea.
Jean
Être gros Jean comme devant = To be no better off than one was before, in spite of all one’s efforts.
[Rabelais, Pantagruel, iv. second prologue, and La Fontaine, Fables, vii. 10.]
Jeter
Jeu
*Jeu qui trop dure ne vaut rien (Charles d’Orléans) = Too much of a good thing is bad.
C’est vieux jeu = That is quite old-fashioned.
Ne me mettez pas en jeu = Do not mix me up in it.
Cela passe le jeu = That is beyond a joke.
*Jeu de mains, jeu de vilains = 1. Horse-play is not gentlemanly. 2. Rough play often ends in tears.
Il fait bonne mine à mauvais jeu = He puts a good face on the matter; He makes the best of a bad job.
*A beau jeu beau retour = One good turn deserves another.
Nous sommes à deux de jeu = We are even; We are a match for each other; Two can play at that game.
Je vous donne beau jeu = (lit.) I give you good cards; (fig.) I give you a good opportunity; I play into your hands.
Jouer gros jeu = (lit.) To play for high stakes; (fig.) To risk very much in an attempt.
Cela n’est pas du jeu = 1. That is not fair, not cricket; You are not playing the game. 2. That was not agreed upon.
*Qui jeune n’apprend, rien ne saura = An old dog will learn no tricks. (See Jeunesse.)
*Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait = If only the young had experience and the old strength; If things were to be done twice, all would be wise.
Ce que poulain prend en jeunesse, il le continue en vieillesse =
“’Tis education forms the common mind.
Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.”
[Pope, Moral Essays, i. 149.]
Youth and white paper take any impression.
[Also: Vieil arbre mal aisé à redresser. Compare the English, “Old dogs are hard to train.” (See Jeune.)
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”—Proverbs xxii. 6.]
Il faut que jeunesse se passe = Boys will be boys.
Joie
Un rabat-joie = A mar-joy; A wet blanket.
Jouer
Il joua de son reste = He played his last card; He was on his last legs.
[Carefully distinguish this from Jouir de son reste = To make the most of one’s remaining time.]
Il joue au plus sûr = He plays a safe game.
Jouer de malheur = To have a run of ill-luck.
Jouer serré = To act cautiously; To leave nothing to chance.
Jour
Ces gens vivent au jour le jour = Those men live from day to day, from hand to mouth.
*À chaque jour suffit sa peine = Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Je suis à jour = I am up to date; I am not behind in my work.
*Tôt ou tard la vérité se fait jour = Sooner or later the truth will come out.
C’est le jour et la nuit = They are as different as chalk and cheese.
Il n’est si long jour qui ne vienne à vêpres =
“Be the day weary, be the day long,
At length it ringeth to evensong.”
[From a poem by Stephen Hawes, a poet of the reign of Henry VII.
Compare:
“Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
Macbeth, i. 3.
And:
Come day, go day,
God brings Sunday.]
A bon jour, bonne œuvre = The better the day, the better the deed.
*Ce n’est pas tous les jours fête = 1. Christmas comes but once a year. 2. One cannot always have “a high old time,” but must work as well. 3. Life is not all beer and skittles.
D’aujourd’hui en huit = This day week.
Il y a aujourd’hui huit jours = This day last week.
En plein jour = In broad daylight.
Il y a quinze ans jour pour jour = It was fifteen years ago to the very day.
Prendre jour = To agree upon a day for an appointment.
Juge
*De fou juge briève (brève) sentence = A fool’s bolt is soon shot.
Juger
Juger sur l’étiquette du sac = To judge by appearances, by the exterior.
Au juger = At a guess.
Jurer
Le vert jure avec le jaune = Green does not match with yellow; Green clashes with yellow.
Jurer comme un templier (charretier, païen) = To swear like a trooper.
Juste
Au plus juste prix = At the lowest price.
Comme de juste = Rightly enough.
[Littré condemns this expression as ungrammatical, giving the correct form as: comme il est juste. It is, however, almost universally used.]
Justice
Là
Je jette là mon soufflet avec dépit = I fling aside my bellows in disgust.
[É. Souvestre, Le Philosophe sous les toits.]
Laine
Nous sommes allés chercher de la laine et nous sommes revenus tondus = We went out to shear and returned shorn; The biter bit.
Laisser
Cela laisse à désirer = There is room for improvement; It is not quite the thing.
Je ne laisse pas d’être inquiet = In spite of all that, I am anxious.
[Here we have the old meaning of laisser (= laxare) to leave off. Hence, I do not leave off being anxious.]
C’est à prendre ou à laisser = You must take it or leave it; It’s a case of Hobson’s choice.
Il se laissa faire = He offered no resistance.
Langage
*“Je vis de bonne soupe et non de beau langage” = “Fair words butter no parsnips.”
[The French is found in Molière, Les Femmes Savantes, ii. 7, and the English equivalent in Wycherley, Plain Dealer, v. 3.
Also: C’est un bel instrument que la langue.]
Langue
Ils tiraient la langue = (lit.) They put their tongues out; (fig.) They showed signs of distress.
Il a la langue trop longue = He cannot hold his tongue.
Il a la langue bien pendue = He has the gift of the gab.
Jeter sa langue aux chiens = To give up guessing (conundrums, etc.). (See Chat.)
La langue lui a fourché = He made a slip of the tongue.
Lanterne
Large
Prendre le large = To run for the offing (nav.); To run away.
Au large = In the open sea. (See Plein.)
Larron
Ils s’entendent comme larrons en foire = They are as thick as thieves.
*L’occasion fait le larron = Opportunity makes the thief; Keep yourself from opportunities and God will keep you from sins.
[“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes ill deeds done.”
Shakespeare, King John, iv. 2.]
Latin
Latin de cuisine = Dog Latin.
J’y perds mon latin = I cannot make it out; I am nonplussed; I can make neither head nor tail of it.
Être au bout de son latin (or, rouleau) = To be at one’s wits’ end; Not to know what to do, or say, next.
Lettre
Je lui ai dit la chose en toutes lettres = I told him the matter plainly.
Ne prenez pas ce que je dis au pied de la lettre = Do not take what I say literally.
Lever
J’en lèverais la main = I would swear to it; I would take my oath to it.
[The oath in courts of justice is taken in many countries with the right hand raised, palm outwards. In England we kiss a Bible.]
Le président leva la séance = The chairman dissolved the meeting; The Speaker left the chair.
*À qui se lève matin Dieu prête la main = It is the early bird that catches the worm.
Lèvre
J’avais le mot sur le bord des lèvres (or, au bout de la langue) = I had the word at the tip of my tongue.
Il n’a pas un rouge liard = He has not a brass farthing. (See Radis.)
Lièvre
C’est là que gît le lièvre = That is the main point; There’s the rub.
*Il ne faut pas courir deux lièvres à la fois = You must not have too many irons in the fire.
Il a une mémoire de lièvre = He has a memory like a sieve.
[Also: Il est comme les lièvres, il perd la mémoire en courant.]
Il veut prendre les lièvres au son du tambour = He makes a great noise about what should be kept secret; He divulged a plan which to succeed had to be kept secret.
Ligne
C’est un homme hors ligne = He is a first-rate man. (See Hors.)
Il est en première ligne = He is in the front rank.
Linotte
Il a une tête de linotte = He is a hare-brained fellow.
Livre
Traduire à livre ouvert = To translate at sight.
Loin
Revenir de loin = 1. To come back from a distant place. 2. To recover from a very severe illness.
De loin en loin = At long intervals.
Long
*Tout s’use à la longue = Everything wears out in time.
[Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse.]
Il se promenait de long en large = He was walking up and down, to and fro.
Il en sait trop long = He knows too much.
Il m’a raconté la chose tout au long = He told me every detail of the affair.
Il était étendu tout de son long = He was lying at full length.
Longer
Longer la côte = To hug the shore.
Louer
*Qui se loue s’emboue = Self-praise is no recommendation.
Il marche à pas de loup = He walks stealthily.
Il est connu comme le loup blanc = He is known to every one.
*Quand on parle du loup, on en voit la queue (or, il sort du bois) = Speak of angels and you hear their wings; Talk of the devil, he is sure to appear.
*Le loup mourra dans sa peau = A bad thing never dies; A bad man will die a bad man.
[Lupus pilum mutat non mentem. Erasmus (Adagia 989) gives the Greek origin of this saying, ὁ λύκος τὴν τρίχα οὐ τὴν γνώμην ἀλλάττει, but he quotes no author.]
Tenir le loup par la queue = To have hold of the sow by the wrong ear.
On fait toujours le loup plus gros qu’il n’est = A tale never loses in the telling.
*Il faut hurler avec les loups = When we are at Rome we must do as Rome does; You must do as others do; He who kennels with wolves must howl.
[“Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. xv. 33). Paul quoted this iambic line form Menander’s “Thais,” “φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρῆσθ᾽ ὁμιλίαι κακαί.”
The proverb about Rome is said to have originated with St. Ambrose, who, when he was asked by St. Augustine whether he should fast on Saturday or not when he was at Rome, although he was not accustomed to do so when at home, replied: “When I am at home I do not fast on Saturday; but when I am at Rome I do, and I think you should follow the custom of every city you visit, if you would avoid scandal.” From this reply originated the hexameter: Cum Romæ fueris Romano vive more = When you shall be at Rome, live after the Roman fashion.]
Tenir le loup par les oreilles = To be in a critical situation; To have caught a Tartar.
[“Auribus lupum teneo.”—Terence, Phormio, iii. 2, 21.]
Il fait un froid de loup = It is terribly cold.
*Les loups ne se mangent pas entre eux = Dog does not eat dog; There is honour among thieves. (See Corsaire.)
Renfermer le loup dans la bergerie = To set the fox to keep the geese.
Ils se sont mis dans la gueule du loup = They rushed into the lion’s mouth.
C’est un vieux loup de mer = He is an old sea dog.