Avoir vu le loup

Literally: To have seen the wolf

Example: “Dans les vieux romans, on disait d'une jeune fille déjà initiée qu'elle avait vu le loup.” — In old novels, a young woman who had lost her innocence was said to have seen the wolf.

Origin: Before the 18th century this meant only what it says: wolf hunting was dangerous work, and a person who had seen the wolf was seasoned and experienced. Two other phrases pulled it sideways. In the 16th century la danse du loup meant the sexual act — loup was also a word for the male member — and by the 17th danser le branle du loup meant to make love. As the wolf hunt lost its weight, the expression absorbed those senses while keeping the idea of experience, and the young woman who had danced the branle du loup was now experienced in that. It could as easily have been avoir dansé le branle du loup, except that branle — a period dance, but a word that also carries a far cruder sense — was too explicit by half for a matter people preferred to name sideways. The hoarseness is a different thread, nearly lost outside a few regions, and very old — Plato already reports the belief that a man seen by a wolf before he sees it is struck mute and witless, and losing your voice is what the mute and the badly hoarse have in common.