
Ça en jette !
Meaning: To look genuinely impressive.
Literally: It throws some!
Example: “Avec ses lustres en cristal, cette salle de bal, ça en jette !” — With its crystal chandeliers, this ballroom will knock your socks off!
English equivalent: To knock someone's socks off
Origin: A clipping of jeter un jus or jeter son jus, from the start of the 20th century, meaning to cut a fine figure. The jus is the puzzling part, and Gaston Esnault's reading is that it carries the idea of essence or extract — the best of a thing, the way the juice of a leg of lamb is — so that someone dressing to dazzle is showing the best of himself, or at least trying to make it look that way, and throwing it in the face of everyone watching. The sense started out confined to a person's appearance and widened later to anything striking enough to stop you.
Equivalents in other languages
English: knock someone's socks off
More French idioms
- Y a pas de lézard ! No problem; it's all fine.
- Se retrouver une main devant, une main derrière To be left with absolutely nothing.
- Avoir vu le loup Said of a young woman, to have had sex; also, in some regions, to be hoarse.
- Ne pas y aller de main morte To hit hard; to act without the slightest restraint.
- Bourrer le mou To feed someone lies; to try to con them.
- Enculer les mouches To split hairs; to fuss over trivial detail. Vulgar.
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