Like every language, French has its idiomatic expressions. The meaning of some of them is obvious while others are more obscure. They almost always originate in some distant event or cultural tendency in France’s history. I love delving into the origins of things, so here are a couple of phrases that I came across recently.
Faire la soupe à la grimace
Literally make soup with a grimace. It refers to the disagreeable expression one makes when thwarted or annoyed.
The origins of the phrase are less than feminist. Formerly, the women prepared the family’s evening soup, hence the word souper (supper). If a woman was annoyed with her husband when he came home, she would make une soupe à la grimace, i.e. give him a grumpy reception.
In researching this phrase, I actually found a recipe for soupe à la grimace. This seems to be either a soup made with pumpkin or one whose main ingredients are chicken broth, grated cheese and semolina. I can’t find out why these recipes have assumed the name. If anyone knows, please enlighten us.
Jeter l’argent par les fenêtres
For this one, I’m indebted to a reader who mentioned it in a comment a while ago. I knew the expression, but not the origins.
The meaning seems obvious. Jeter l’argent par les fenêtres is to throw your money out of the window, in other words to waste it on useless or trivial items or pursuits. We might say, “Pouring money down the drain.”
The phrase first appeared in the dictionary of l’Académie Française in the mid-17th century, but it dates back well before that.
Hazardous profession
One theory about the origin is as follows. During the later Middle Ages, the population increased after the disastrous 14th-century plague pandemic. Towns expanded to accommodate extra people, causing a building boom. However, mains drainage was a thing of the future. In places, people simply tossed their rubbish out of the window, including the contents of their chamber pots.
So what does this have to do with money? Clearly, the street beneath the upper windows was a hazardous place to linger, but some people were prepared to take the risk.
Troubadours and actors plied their trade in the street, hoping that people would chuck them a coin from their window (possibly to make them go away). Beggars did the same. If you had money to fritter away like that, you were obviously wealthy.
As an aside, I wonder if the modern view of medieval people throwing their waste out of the window is exaggerated. Medieval towns were no doubt much more insalubrious and unhygienic than they are today. However, the understanding of how diseases spread increased greatly because of the plague.
Also, as local government developed, public health and sanitation became civic responsibilities. The elected consuls down here instituted fines in places for dumping rubbish in the street and set up communal cesspits. This, of course, didn’t prevent some people from doing it, but it demonstrates a preoccupation with cleanliness.
Valuable commodity
I also wonder if the phrase has another origin. Ammonia and phosphates derived from urine have been prized from time immemorial in tanning, medicine and farming. The Roman Emperor Nero established a tax on the buyers of urine, which Vespasian reinstated in about AD 70. [Hence the name Vespasiennes later given to Parisian urinals.]
I have read that, before the introduction of comprehensive mains drainage in Paris in the 19th century, people in the poorer quartiers sold the contents of their chamber pots to farmers for use as fertiliser. [I’m not clear how they organised this. There must have been a middleman to collect it.] Thus, if you flung all that out of the window or into a communal cesspit, you were throwing money away.
I had better emerge from this rabbit hole. Any phrases you would like to bring to our attention or send me chasing back down the rabbit hole to research?!
In other news
The weather is still behaving like a recalcitrant teenager. Since it’s le weekend de la Pentecôte (Whitsun) in France, this is not a surprise. But the countryside is very green and lush as a result, and this year’s roses are magnificent.
I am feeling demob happy, since we filed our French Déclaration de revenus (tax return) this week. This exercise is always a nightmare of labyrinthine complexity, even though we have done it countless times.
The two of us huddled over the online forms for a whole afternoon, puzzling out where to put our comparatively simple figures. We are still not sure if we have done it correctly. However, the assessment looked broadly accurate, so we reckoned that this would have to do.
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Life on La Lune 
Here’s one I heard recently : Attacher le chien avec la saucisse !! sounds fun, doesn’t it?? 😀
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Now, that is an interesting one! I had never heard that before, and the explanation is fascinating. I think I shall save it up for a future post. And I have you to thank for the inspiration for this post!
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You’re very welcome, Vanessa!! It’s always a delight to read your posts!!
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Thank you! You’re very kind.
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Language is so fascinating. And funnily enough we have just sent in our tax return this afternoon. Breathing the same sigh of relief as you!!
MJ
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I keep picking up new expressions in French. A real treasure trove of phrases. My relief at filing our tax return has been replaced by anxiety that we have done it wrong!
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Great post, I love the different expressions used in English and French. ‘Revenons a nos moutons’ for example. I love this expression and it’s very apt as I am guilty of straying away from the subject when writing or talking! I have a mental image of a chatty shepherd ignoring his flock. 😊
i discovered in conversation the other day that to kill two birds with one stone has its French equivalent, un caillou, deux coups. Endlessly fascinating…
btw persisting down here too! ☔
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That’s a good one. Thanks for sharing it. I hadn’t heard it before, but it’s very apt and also redolent of France’s rural past, from which a lot of these expressions emanate. I hadn’t heard “Un caillou, deux coups”, either, so I shall add that to my collection!
I am beginning to wonder if this rotten weather will ever improve. I suspect that we shall go from this straight into canicule, but I do hope not.
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As you said, languages have some expressions that can be confusing for those non speakers. I know there are lots of Australian idiomatic terms that would puzzle new comers. One French term I like is ” Je vous en prie ” meaning ” You’re welcome “.
We often watch the French news here and I try to translate the title they put up on each story. There is often something that seems strange to me. I do pick up a little now and then from the speech, but do rely on being able to recognise what the story is about from the printed title.
The weather in France seems not so great this year. We were there this time last year and it was pretty good. We hope to be there again this time next year, so I hope it is better. I see there is more flooding in the Moselle region in the north.
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You don’t often hear “je vous en prie” these days. It tends to be older people who use it. Having said that, a lady did say it to me about a year ago, and she wasn’t of the older generation! Down here, you’re more likely to hear, “Avec plaisir” or “De rien”. It might be one of those things that depends on where you are.
Even after 27 years here, I still find it difficult to follow, for example, if they interview people during a news item. Young people especially seem to speak very fast and not enunciate the words clearly, but that no doubt shows my age and is probably true of young people everywhere!
It’s a good thing that you didn’t come this year. Since late October, the weather has been awful just about everywhere in France, except around the Med. Torrential rain, thunder, hail, even tornadoes in places. Parts of the Moselle are under water, having never experienced anything like this. I’ll keep fingers crossed that it’s better for you next year.
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I love these type of phrases and have used some of them when teaching advanced conversation classes. ‘Teaching your grandmother to suck eggs’ was a particular favourite with one of my English classes! I think the equivalent might be ‘apprendre à un vieux singe à faire des grimaces’??
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Yes, these expressions don’t always translate easily into another language! That’s a great example, which could be used for old dogs and new tricks as well. I just looked up teaching granny to suck eggs, since I have never known its origins. Sources are unclear, but it might refer to the time before modern dentistry, when making a hole in an egg to suck out the protein was an acquired skill. Bit sexist, though – why not grandpa too? Language is an endless source of entertainment.
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Yes, language is fascinating.
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Well done for the tax form – I’m demob happy too, having spent most of yesterday doing ours. I like the fact that they give you an estimate of the tax due immediately you file the online form — I was especially happy that ours came to 19 euros! (And that if it had been 1900 euros I would have known I’d made some major error AND have the right to correct it … such a good system.)
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We’ve been doing it for 27 years, and it doesn’t seem to get any easier! I agree, though that it’s good to have an immediate estimate and to be able to go back and correct it.
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I love all these French expressions, thanks Vanessa.
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There are some good ones. I like to try them out in practice, always hoping, of course, that I’m using them correctly!
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😎
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