Avoir des oursins dans la poche
Meaning: To be tight-fisted.
Language: French
Literally: To have sea urchins in one's pocket
Example: “Il ne paie jamais sa tournée ; il a des oursins dans la poche.” — He never pays for a round; he's a real penny pincher.
English equivalent: A penny pincher
Category: Animals
Origin: The picture explains itself, and the word has a small puzzle of its own: oursin, from the middle of the 16th century, is taken by some as a deformation of ourson, a bear cub, and by others from the Occitan orsin de mar. The creature — also called hérisson de mer, sea hedgehog, and châtaigne de mer, sea chestnut — is covered in spines that nobody wants to drive into a finger. A man with a pocketful of them would very sensibly leave his hand out of it, and to anyone unaware of what he is keeping in there, that reluctance to reach for his money looks exactly like meanness.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: Avere le braccine corte — literally: To have short little arms
- Polish: Mieć węża w kieszeni — literally: To have a snake in your pocket
- English: penny pincher
More idioms — Animals
- Pédé comme un phoque — Said of a man: unmistakably gay. *Pédé* is a homophobic slur and the phrase is offensive.
- Fait comme un rat — Trapped, with no way out.
- Manger de la vache enragée — To live in real poverty; to go through a long stretch of hardship.
- Parler français comme une vache espagnole — To speak French appallingly badly.
- Une peau de vache — A vicious, pitiless person — a hard case, especially one with authority over you.
- La vache ! — An exclamation — either at someone's rottenness, or, just as often, at something impressi…
More French idioms
- Sur la paille — Reduced to real poverty.
- Avoir un nom à coucher dehors — To have a name nobody can pronounce or remember.
- Coûter la peau des fesses — To cost an absolute fortune.
- Être dans les petits papiers de quelqu'un — To be in someone's good books; to enjoy their favor.
- Faire un pataquès — To make a clumsy verbal slip, or a blunder generally; also, to make an enormous fuss over…
- Patin couffin — And so on and so forth; et cetera.
From our compliments & insults
- Tu déchires — You're awesome — you totally rock.
- Bête comme ses pieds — Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.