French Idioms and Proverbs A Companion to Deshumbert's "Dictionary of Difficulties"

“_Tant ayme on chien qu’on le nourrist, Tant court chanson qu’elle est aprise, Tant garde on fruit qu’il se pourrist, Tant bat on place qu’elle est prise. Tant tarde on que faut...

[“Amour au cœur me poind Quand bien-aimé je suis, Mais aimer je ne puis Quand on ne m’aime point. Chacun soit adverti De faire comme moi, Car d’aimer sans party C’est un trop gr...

[_C’est une bague au doigt_ is said of any advantageous possession of which one can dispose easily. Quitard derives it from the custom of the seller of land giving to the purcha...

[An expression derived from a game which consisted in lighting a large roll of paper and passing it round a circle of people, each one repeating these words. The roll would ofte...

_C’est l’air qui fait la chanson_ = Words depend much on the tone in which they are spoken; It is not so much what you say as the way in which you say it.

[A piece of the rope with which a man had been hanged was, and is even now, considered as a charm against ill-luck. Archbishop Trench adduces other proverbs in reference to the...

[Littré gives as the explanation of this obscure expression that artists while waiting for their patrons used to draw pictures of little monkeys (_marmot_) in the vestibule. Oth...

Qui tout convoite tout perd. L’avarice rompt le sac. Too much is stark naught. “Oh, the little more, and how much it is! And the little less, and what worlds away!” BROWNING, _D...

[These words are said to have been written by François I. on two little leaded panes in his room at the castle of Chambord, about ten miles from Blois. Brantôme says that while...

[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 rou...

_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.

[From an old farce of the fifteenth century, _Maistre Pierre Pathelin_, verse 1191, attributed without foundation to Pierre Blanchet. M. F. Génin in his edition (1854) gives 146...

[Another English variant is: “The kiln calls the oven: Burnt house.” The Italians say: “La padella dice al pajuolo, ‘Fatti ni la che tu me tigni’” = The pan says to the pot, “Ke...

= At the present day people give nothing for nothing, and precious little for sixpence. [MOLIÈRE, _École des Femmes_, iii. 2. _Rien_ here shows its derivation from _rem_ (a thin...

[Vaugelas (1585-1650) was a celebrated writer on French grammar, one of the first members of the Académie Française, and one of the chief contributors to its Dictionary. Comp. M...

[An old game that used to be played in May was for two people to undertake to be able always to show a green twig: failure to do so lost the game.]

“In it are to be found differences and distinctions which in common French and English dictionaries are mostly not to be discovered at all.... Is singularly free from errors of...