Faire amende honorable
Meaning: To publicly admit you were wrong and apologize.
Language: French
Literally: To make honorable amends
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Once a literal judicial penalty: the condemned was led in a shirt, rope around the neck, to beg pardon aloud before the court or church. The ceremony disappeared at the Revolution but the phrase kept its sense of public retraction.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Bon an, mal an — On average, taking the good years with the bad; year in, year out.
- Le libre arbitre — Free will — the capacity to choose independently of compulsion.
- L'argent n'a pas d'odeur — Money is money regardless of how disreputably it was earned.
- Une Arlésienne — A person or thing endlessly talked about but who never actually appears.
- Signer son arrêt de mort — To take an action that guarantees your own downfall.
- Un homme de l'art — A qualified professional, especially a physician.
More French idioms
- C'est du grand art — That is masterfully done.
- L'enfance de l'art — Utterly elementary; child's play.
- À l'article de la mort — At the very point of dying.
- De bon augure — A promising sign; its opposite, de mauvais augure, means ominous.
- 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.
From our false friends
- Rester — Actually means 'to stay' or 'to remain'. Je reste ici = I'm staying here — not taking a n…
- Attendre — Actually means 'to wait for'. J'attends le bus = I'm waiting for the bus. For attend an e…
- Actuel — Actually means 'current' or 'present-day'. Actuellement = currently — not 'actually'.
Loading the full interactive collection…