FrenchAvoir la pêche
Meaning: To be full of energy and on top form.
Literally: To have the peach
Example: “Ce matin, après une bonne nuit, j'ai la pêche !” — This morning, after a good night's sleep, I'm full of energy!
English equivalent: To be full of beans
Origin: One of a family of colloquial phrases for being full of energy: avoir la pêche (the peach), la frite (the fry), la patate (the potato), la banane. Lexicographers date avoir la pêche to about 1960, but as a spoken phrase its first uses are hard to trace. The most common explanation links it to boxing slang, where a pêche is a punch, so that having the peach meant having a punch in reserve; another points to the peach as a Chinese symbol of immortality. Neither is confirmed.
Other ways to say this
- French: Avoir la patate Literally: To have the fry / to have the potato
English: be full of beans
More French idioms
- Avoir une araignée au plafond To be a little crazy.
- Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre I couldn't care less; it leaves me utterly indifferent.
- Prendre son pied To take intense pleasure; to have a wonderful time.
- Il pleut comme vache qui pisse It's pouring down — a crude, vivid way to say the rain is coming down extremely hard.
- Mettre la puce à l'oreille To arouse someone's suspicion or make them uneasy about something.
- Sortir de ses gonds To fly into a rage; to lose one's temper suddenly and violently.
Explore another collection: Compliments & Insults
Compliments and insults from around the world, from the sweet to the savage.
- Espèce de patate You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
- Quel râleur / quelle râleuse You never stop moaning — everything is a complaint, nothing is ever good enough.
- Peau de vache A mean, difficult, and unpleasant person — tough and unyielding like tanned hide.
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