Faire du gringue
Meaning: To chat someone up, insistently.
Language: French
Literally: To make some gringue
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Gringue was bread. In the middle of the 16th century grignon — from grigner, the root of grignoter (to nibble) — was a regional word for a piece of bread, and gringue derives from it, serving as a word for bread through the second half of the 19th century. Aristide Bruant has faire du gringue at the very start of the 20th meaning to try to please, and within ten years it had sharpened into pressing courtship. How bread got there is the obvious question, and the only answer offered — by Gaston Esnault, with no certainty at all — is a link to the older faire des petits pains pour quelqu'un (to make little breads for someone), which meant first to make oneself agreeable in order to bait, and then simply to court.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Être gonflé / Ne pas manquer d'air — To be recklessly bold — or, said with irritation, to have a great deal of nerve.
- Tirer au flanc / Tirer au cul — To dodge work; to shirk.
- 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.
- Les carottes sont cuites — It's too late, nothing can be done.
More French idioms
- Pas folle, la guêpe ! — Said of someone shrewd enough not to be taken in.
- En rester comme deux ronds de flan — To be utterly dumbfounded.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
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