Con comme la lune
Meaning: Exceptionally stupid.
Language: French
Literally: As stupid as the moon
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Recent as these things go — attested only from the start of the 20th century — but built on a much older association. Since the 17th century the moon has stood for absent-mindedness or mild derangement: être dans la lune (to be in the moon) is to have your thoughts elsewhere, and avoir un quartier de lune dans la tête (to have a quarter-moon in the head) marks someone odd. Two readings compete for the stupidity. One takes the full moon as a face — round, blank, entirely without expression, which is the look being described. The other is straight slang, where lune means the backside on a simple resemblance of shape: a part of the anatomy poorly thought of, and traditionally set against the head.
More idioms — Daily Life
- 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.
- Faire le mariole — To show off; to play the smart aleck.
- Fumer la moquette — To be talking obvious nonsense; to be off one's head.
- Sauver les meubles — To salvage what matters from a disaster.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
More French idioms
- 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.
- Être dans la mouise / Être dans la panade / Être dans la purée — To be broke and in real trouble.
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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