En deux coups de cuillère à pot
Meaning: In no time at all, and with no apparent difficulty.
Language: French
Literally: In two strokes of the pot ladle
Category: Daily Life
Origin: It appears just before the First World War. A cuillère à pot is a large ladle, big enough to empty a pot or serve a heaping portion in a couple of strokes, and that speed is the whole point — the phrase most likely comes from military or prison kitchens, where rations were served fast. A second account derives it instead from a naval boarding sabre whose spoon-shaped guard protected the hand, and which settled an argument in one or two blows; Alain Rey passes over that in silence and Claude Duneton rejects it outright. A third is delightful and definitely false: Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, is supposed to have announced the birth of the future Henri IV to his court in a sentence punning on cuillère à pot — en deux coups de cul hier à Pau, two strokes of the backside yesterday at Pau.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Avoir le feu au cul — To be in a tearing hurry; or, to be highly sexually eager.
- Prendre la poudre d'escampette — To clear off in a hurry.
- Que dalle — Nothing at all.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Avoir le cul entre deux chaises — To be indecisive, caught between two options.
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