IdiomBody & Senses
French
FrenchAvoir le bras long
Meaning: To have influence and useful connections.
Literally: To have a long arm
Example: “Demande à ton oncle, il a le bras long au ministère.” — Ask your uncle; he has friends in high places at the ministry.
English equivalent: To have friends in high places
Origin: The long arm is power that reaches far beyond where its owner stands. Its ancestor is a Latin line in Ovid, an nescis longas regibus esse manus? ("don't you know that kings have long hands?"), and the Académie française recorded les rois ont les bras longs in 1762. By 1798 it said the same of any influential person, il a les bras longs; the singular is the usual form today.
Equivalents in other languages
Korean: 발이 넓다 (bari neopda) Literally: To have wide feet
English: have friends in high places
More French idioms
- Découvrir le pot aux roses To uncover a hidden secret.
- Être dans de beaux draps To be in a real mess.
- Se faire rouler dans la farine To be conned or deceived.
- Tirer le diable par la queue To struggle to make ends meet.
- Passer du coq à l'âne To switch topics abruptly and illogically.
- Avoir le melon To be bigheaded and conceited.
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