Être aux abonnés absents
Meaning: To be unreachable, or to fail to show up when needed.
Language: French
Literally: To be among the absent subscribers
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From the French telephone service of the same name, which from the 1930s took messages for subscribers away from home. Callers heard that the line was aux abonnés absents, and the phrase came to mean anyone conspicuously not answering.
More idioms — Daily Life
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More French idioms
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From our tongue twisters
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