Aller se faire voir chez les Grecs
Meaning: Get lost — said of or to someone you want rid of.
Language: French
Literally: To go and get yourself seen among the Greeks
Category: Daily Life
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 idioms — Daily Life
- Il y a de l'eau dans le gaz — Trouble is brewing; a quarrel is on the way.
- Faire du gringue — To chat someone up, insistently.
- Être gonflé / Ne pas manquer d'air — To be recklessly bold — or, said with irritation, to have a great deal of nerve.
- Tirer au flanc / Tirer au cul — To dodge work; to shirk.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
More French idioms
- Avoir la frite / 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.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- 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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