C'est la croix et la bannière
Meaning: It is an enormous effort or ordeal.
Language: French
Literally: It is the cross and the banner
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A form of this is attested from the 15th century, borrowed from Italian, with the phrasing used today on record from 1822. Religious processions once carried a cross at the head of the line, along with whichever banner suited the occasion — a parish's, a confraternity's, that of an important visitor being formally received — and organizing that procession correctly meant following a thicket of fixed rules about who walked where and carrying what. Furetière's 1690 dictionary already has il faut la croix et la bannière pour inviter quelqu'un — you need the cross and the banner just to invite him — meaning the invitation had to be so formal and so hard to refuse that the person couldn't decently slip away, which is the seed of the modern sense: a process so laden with procedure that finishing it feels like an ordeal.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Faire d'une pierre deux coups — To kill two birds with one stone.
- être sur des charbons ardents — Being extremely anxious or impatient about something.
- avoir un tuyau — Having inside information or a useful tip about something.
- être à court de — Lacking or running low on something essential.
- crier sur les toits — Announcing something publicly that should remain secret.
- avoir un poisson d'avril — Being fooled by a prank or hoax on April 1st.
More French idioms
- Faire la fine bouche — To be overly picky or hard to please.
- Se lever du pied gauche — To wake up in a bad mood.
- Avoir le vent en poupe — To be doing very well; everything is going your way.
- Mettre les pieds dans le plat — To put one's foot in it; to say something awkward or blunt.
- Tourner autour du pot — To beat around the bush.
- Avoir la tête dans les nuages — To be a daydreamer; out of touch with reality.
From our proverbs
- East or west, home is best — No matter where you go, home remains the best place.
- Silence speaks volumes — What is not said can be more meaningful than what is.
- Pearls before swine — Giving something valuable to those who can't appreciate it.