‘The question is quickly answered’ VS. Our Old Expressions

Looking back at outdated, forgotten, or preferred French expressions.

©️Gallica - BnF

In June 2020, a Swiss influencer's phrase and a young singer's French mistake became iconic. 

It was with “The question, it is quickly answered” that JP Fanguin made headlines, intentionally or not. A phrase widely shared on social media. 

The same goes for Wejdene’s “Out of my sight,” which, although unaware it was a French mistake, owns it and “finds it stylish”. 

In short, French expressions, used by the young or not-so-young, have existed since time immemorial. But to turn a simple phrase into a good expression (that will “buzz” with a hashtag on Twitter), it must amuse, surprise, apply to a specific situation, and be easy to remember… Back to our ancestors' language and their outdated, forgotten, or preferred expressions. 

“To hold the dragon high,” “to send someone packing,” “to run a red light,” or “to speak with a wooden tongue,” all these expressions, whether more or less known, have different origins and explanations. 

They are sometimes of foreign origin, specific to a region, religious, from literature, or as old as time itself… 

We use expressions every day, often without realizing it, sometimes appropriately, sometimes not! However, the French language never stops evolving, and some popular expressions have disappeared from our everyday vocabulary. For example: 

• “To carve out a path” which means to cause trouble to someone and dates back to the 17th century. At that time, during war, cavalrymen cut the girths (leather strap to secure the saddle) of their adversaries to make them fall. 

• “To pay in monkey money” which was used to pay with fake money or not pay at all, dating back to the 13th century when fairground workers paid for crossing the bridge between the Île de la Cité and rue Saint-Jacques with a monkey number. 

• “To have the heart in the belly of a calf” long used by young women to tell an overly persistent man to take some distance and go “chase skirts” elsewhere.

• “To let the merino piss” also synonymous with “There’s no hurry,” meaning to take your time and not rush. 

But other expressions have stood the test of time, such as “to put the puck on the ear” and “it would be the icing on the cake” dating back to the 19th century. 

But even older are the expressions “to put one’s hand in the fire” or “to cast the first stone” from the 17th century, “the apple of one’s eye” or “in secret” from the 16th century, or even “from the frying pan into the fire” or “from thread to needle” dating back to the 14th and 13th centuries, which are still used today.