Bourré comme un coing
Meaning: Completely drunk.
Language: French
Literally: Stuffed like a quince
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: A coing is a quince, the fruit of the cognassier (quince tree) that becomes jam or paste — not coin (a wedge, or a corner) said with an accent, which is the usual first guess. Why the quince should stand for drunkenness is honestly unresolved. The most-repeated thread runs through roundness: someone drunk is also rond (round) in French slang, and the quince is a rounder fruit than most, which Alain Rey took as the likely reason it was picked. Gaston Esnault proposed in 1935 that it is instead wordplay between the fruit and coin, the wedge hammered in to hold something fast — though it is hard to see where the play actually lands.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Passer à la casserole — To be killed; to be put through something thoroughly unpleasant; or, said of a woman, to…
- Traîner une casserole — To be trailed by a past scandal that others keep bringing up.
- 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.
More French idioms
- Un chaud lapin — A man with a voracious appetite for sex.
- Faire devenir chèvre — To drive someone up the wall.
- Avaler des couleuvres — To put up with insults or humiliations without being able to protest; also, to swallow an…
- Comme un coq en pâte — Thoroughly pampered; living in complete comfort.
- S'en battre l'œil / S'en tamponner le coquillard — To not care in the slightest.
- C'est dans mes cordes — It is within my competence; I can handle that.
From our tongue twisters
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
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