Ça me fait une belle jambe
Meaning: That is no use to me whatsoever.
Language: French
Literally: That makes me a fine leg
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The leg in question is a man's, not a woman's — the phrase mocks male vanity rather than admiring female charm. From the 15th century especially, men wore chausses that showed the leg off: the haut-de-chausses to about the knee and the bas-de-chausses, ancestor of the stocking, clinging close enough to leave the calf's shape barely to the imagination. By the 17th century a well-turned leg mattered socially, and the men who paraded theirs gave French faire la belle jambe. Furetière records the ironic turn by the end of that century — cela ne me rendra pas la jambe mieux faite, that will not make my leg any better shaped, said to someone offering something useless. Drop the negation and you have the modern antiphrasis; ça me fait bien la jambe appears in the 19th century before the current wording won out.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Se retrouver une main devant, une main derrière — To be left with absolutely nothing.
- 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.
- Rouler des mécaniques — To swagger; to throw one's weight around.
- Se casser la margoulette — To come a cropper; to take a bad fall.
- Se faire du mouron — To worry oneself.
More French idioms
- Rire jaune — To force a laugh; to laugh while plainly not amused.
- En jeter / Ça en jette ! — To look genuinely impressive.
- Y a pas de lézard ! — No problem; it's all fine.
- Con comme la lune — Exceptionally stupid.
- Faire un malheur — To cause a scene with serious consequences — or, oppositely, to be a runaway success.
- Se faire la malle — To clear off; to make a run for it.
From our proverbs
- One may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. — Risk harsh punishment equally for major wrongs or minor ones, so choose the bolder course.
- There are many ways of killing a dog beside hanging him. — Multiple methods exist to achieve the same harmful outcome, so don't fixate on one partic…
- Where we least think, there goeth the hare away. — Prey escape through negligence; danger strikes when vigilance wavers at supposed safe mom…
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