Fri, 08/26/2011 - 16:15

In France, food says it all

Paris is a city that loves food. In fact, it loves food so much it often crops up as either a topic of conversation or a form of expression. There are a myriad ways of bandying fruit laced idioms or meaty insults to describe people and things. Here is a collection of a few Parisians’ favourite food-related sayings:

 

Avoir un coeur d'artichaud
Translation: To have an artichoke heart
Meaning: To fall in love easily

 

 

 

Tomber dans les pommes
Translation: To fall in the apples
Meaning: To faint

 

 

 

Avoir la peche
Translation: To have a peach
Meaning: To be very happy or to smile

 

 

 

Fin des haricots
Translation: The end of the beans
Meaning: It’s the end of the world

 

 

 

Une quiche
Translation: a quiche
Meaning: Someone stupid or with below average intelligence

 

 

 

Mettre de l’eau dans son vin
Translation: To put water in one’s wine
Meaning: To back off of a position or firmly held point of view during an argument

 

 

 

Cracher dans la soupe
Translation: To spit in the soup
Meaning: Don’t poop where you eat

 

 

 

Un vrai navet
Translation: A real turnip
Meaning: A bust, a dudd or something that’s generally not good

 

 

 

Baigner dans son jus

Translation: To bathe in one’s own juices

Meaning: To be really filthy or dirty

 

 

 

Bof/Beauf
Translation: Bof/Beauf
Meaning: The meanings of these two words are not easy to explain, but let’s begin by saying that despite their different origins, they are sometimes confused with one another because of their common meaning.

 

Rumour has it that "Bof" is actually an acronym for Boeuf (beef), oeuf (egg) and fromage (cheese). The term was apparently first coined during World War II to describe a despicable class of people who lined their pockets with money by selling such tightly rationed items to their countrymen.

 

"Beauf" has a more recent history. The word is thought to have been born in the 1970s by a comic book creator, and is the abbreviation of beau-frère (brother-in-law or step-brother).

 

So what is a bof/beauf? It’s someone who lacks culture or is cluelessly vulgar. It is a favourite word among Parisians and is most often thrown about about on holiday.

 

A chic Parisian might have the great misfortune of landing in a so-called “beaufland” while vacationing in the South of France, for example. This could be a beach filled with loud, unsophisticated people who dress in tacky clothing and encroach on your personal space. Or, it could be a site next to a scenic destination, where scores of bofs/beaufs have parked their campers and are pic-nicking with their backs to the view. There are numerous traits that could qualify someone as a bof/beauf, yet to be Parisian is not one of them.

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7 Comments

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Sports bars in Singapore (not verified) - Fri, 02/17/2012 - 13:03
That’s really fantastic.I went across lot of links but could not find like this one, I wonder though !!!
Pierre la Ferrasse (not verified) - Tue, 12/06/2011 - 14:30
You could also have mentionned: "les carottes sont cuites" "tomber dans les pommes" "c'est de la daube" "mettre une pêche/un pain dans la poire de quelqu'un" "ça se boit comme du petit lait" "la patate chaude" "ajouter son grain de sel"
Millicent (not verified) - Mon, 09/19/2011 - 07:00
I went to tons of links bferoe this, what was I thinking?
Vic (not verified) - Tue, 09/13/2011 - 13:29
There is also the saying: "Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre" (to have butter and the money from the butter) which is the French equivalent of "To have your cake and eat it too".
Polly-Vous Francais (not verified) - Mon, 09/05/2011 - 23:19
These are great! I also love "mettre du beurre dans les epinards," which I think means to make more money or improve one's life.
Stephen Hill (not verified) - Mon, 09/05/2011 - 22:35
I like this. I could learn a lot of colloqual French with which to confound the knowsall