IdiomBody & SensesFrench

Couler un bronze

Meaning: To defecate.

Literally: To cast a bronze

Example: “Il a disparu dix minutes pour aller couler un bronze.” — He vanished for ten minutes to go and take a dump.

Origin: Attested from 1957, extrapolated from couler dans le bronze — to cast in bronze, and so to make something permanent, as a statue does for a national figure. Quite why that transferred is not explained, since what is produced here is neither durable nor commemorated. The sculptor's preliminary lump of clay may have helped the image along, and argot had already been calling the anus l'œil de bronze since 1928.

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