IdiomFood & Drink
French
FrenchAvoir un cœur d'artichaut
Meaning: To fall in love easily and often.
Literally: To have an artichoke heart
Example: “Il tombe amoureux toutes les semaines, il a un cœur d'artichaut.” — He falls in love every week; he's a hopeless romantic.
Origin: An artichoke is eaten leaf by leaf, each person pulling one off on the way to the tender heart. A 19th-century saying spelled out the joke: cœur d'artichaut, une feuille pour tout le monde (an artichoke heart, a leaf for everyone), and Le Robert's dictionary of expressions derives the phrase from it. Someone with such a heart hands out love freely, one leaf at a time.
More French idioms
- Faire la grasse matinée To sleep in and have a lazy lie-in.
- Avoir le bras long To have influence and useful connections.
- 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.
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