IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchAvoir le feu sacré
Meaning: To be driven by genuine, burning vocation.
Literally: To have the sacred fire
Example: “Après trente ans de métier, cette institutrice a toujours le feu sacré.” — After thirty years in the job, this teacher still has fire in her belly.
English equivalent: Fire in the belly
Equivalents in other languages
English: fire in the belly
Origin: The sacred fire was the flame the Vestals kept perpetually alight in Rome, whose extinction was a state emergency. The phrase implies something maintained rather than merely felt.
More French idioms
- Marquer à la culotte To watch someone so closely they cannot move freely.
- Revoir sa copie To go back and rework a proposal that has been rejected.
- Ronger son frein To wait in barely contained impatience.
- Jeter sa gourme To sow one's wild oats.
- Tirer à hue et à dia To pull in opposite directions; to work at cross purposes.
- Une grenouille de bénitier A woman conspicuously and tiresomely devout.
Explore another collection: Proverbs
Short sayings of timeless wisdom from more than 50 cultures, each with its meaning and origin.
- C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron You learn a skill by practicing it.
- L'union fait la force People who stand together are stronger than any of them alone.
- Vouloir, c'est pouvoir If you want something badly enough, you will find a way to do it.
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