Balancer la sauce / Envoyer la sauce
Meaning: To ejaculate; to fire a burst from a weapon; or to open the throttle. Vulgar in the first sense.
Language: French
Literally: To throw the sauce
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: That slang of the first half of the 20th century used sauce for semen is not surprising given the consistency, and French had sauce d'amour for the secretions of either sex as early as the start of the 17th century — sauce also being what accompanies meat. Balancer la purée says the same. Since ejaculating is also décharger in common speech, and a rifle is an unsubtle enough phallic symbol, the phrase slid by analogy into discharging a weapon around the middle of the century. The engine sense is separate and slightly earlier, from the very start of the 20th: there the sauce is the fuel that lets the revs climb. What unites all three is a sudden release of power, which is why the phrase also serves for landing a hard punch or, of a musician, playing flat out.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
- Mettre son grain de sel — To give an unsolicited opinion.
More French idioms
- Tout schuss — Flat out; or straight down, without deviating.
- Chanter comme une seringue / Chanter comme une casserole — To sing badly out of tune.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
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