FrenchCasser le nez à coups d’encensoir
Meaning: To offer someone clumsy, exaggerated, and insincere flattery to their face.
Literally: To break the nose with blows of an incense-burner
Example: “Le courtisan cassait le nez du roi à coups d'encensoir.” — The courtier heaped clumsy flattery on the king.
English equivalent: To lay it on with a trowel
Equivalents in other languages
English: lay it on with a trowel
Origin: In church the censer (encensoir) is swung on its chains toward the altar and, in solemn ceremonies, toward people of rank as a mark of honor. Swinging it so close and so hard that it breaks the honoree's nose is flattery so heavy-handed it becomes an assault. Boileau mocked the novice author who swings the censer across his hero's face, and the Académie française listed casser le nez à coups d'encensoir in 1798, for praise so outrageous it reads as mockery.
More French idioms
- Se casser la figure To fall to the ground; to have an accident or suffer a collapse.
- Être du propre Used ironically to criticize something as morally or physically filthy.
- Remuer ciel et terre To exert all possible effort and use every available means to achieve a goal.
- Joindre le geste à la parole To back up what you say with action; to keep your promises.
- Faire dresser l’oreille To catch someone's attention or spark their interest.
- Renaître de ses cendres To rise again and flourish after near-total destruction.
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- Tu déchires You're awesome — you totally rock.
- Bête comme ses pieds Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main To be incurably lazy.
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