FrenchAller se faire voir chez les Grecs
Meaning: Get lost — said of or to someone you want rid of.
Literally: To go and get yourself seen among the Greeks
Example: “Il m'a demandé de l'argent pour la troisième fois ; je l'ai envoyé se faire voir chez les Grecs.” — He asked me for money for the third time, so I told him to take a hike.
English equivalent: Take a hike
Equivalents in other languages
Dutch: ga toch fietsen Literally: Go cycling
English: take a hike
Origin: The phrase rests on an old French stereotype casting the Greeks as given to sodomy, so sending someone off to visit them was a way of wishing them an unpleasant time and being rid of them in the same breath — about as friendly as telling someone to go to the devil. Coarser variants swap voir (to see) for blunter verbs, among them empapaouter, which in current use means to sodomize but arrives from Occitan empapautar, where it meant something milder: to swindle.
More French idioms
- Avoir la patate To be on great form; to be full of energy.
- Pas folle, la guêpe ! Said of someone shrewd enough not to be taken in.
- En rester comme deux ronds de flan To be utterly dumbfounded.
- Taper sur le système To get on someone's nerves.
- Ça me fait une belle jambe That is no use to me whatsoever.
- Rire jaune To force a laugh; to laugh while plainly not amused.
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- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
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