De bon augure
Meaning: A promising sign; its opposite, de mauvais augure, means ominous.
Language: French
Literally: Of good augury
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Roman augurs read the will of the gods in the flight and feeding of birds, and no public act was undertaken against a bad reading. The vocabulary of that office survives in French with the religion stripped out.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Mesurer à l'aune de — To judge something by a particular standard.
- L'avocat du diable — Someone who argues a position they do not hold in order to test it.
- Dans tous les azimuts — In every direction at once; scattered and unfocused.
- Une tour de Babel — A place of hopeless confusion, especially one where nobody speaks the same language.
- Plier bagage — To pack up and clear off, usually in a hurry.
- Ça fait un bail — It has been ages.
More French idioms
- Un baiser de Judas — A show of affection that conceals a betrayal.
- La balle est dans votre camp — It is your turn to act; the decision now rests with you.
- Convoquer le ban et l'arrière-ban — To call in absolutely everyone available.
- Une république bananière — A corrupt, unstable state run for the benefit of a few private interests.
- Un travail de bénédictin — Painstaking, patient scholarly labor demanding enormous persistence.
- Le benjamin — The youngest member of a family, team or group.
From our false friends
- Sensible — Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
- Librairie — Actually means 'bookshop'. A library is une bibliothèque.
- Pain — Actually means 'bread'. The hurting kind of pain is la douleur.
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