faire un couac
Meaning: Making an embarrassing mistake or producing a discordant sound.
Language: French
Literally: to make a squawk
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Couac is 15th-century onomatopoeia, coac, imitating a duck's cry — the word survives as one of the duck's familiar nicknames — and orchestra slang from the following century borrowed the same sound for the ugly, unplanned squawk a clarinet or oboe produces when a reed catches wrong or a note cracks. A singer or a musician who fait un couac has, for one unplanned instant, sounded exactly like the bird the word imitates. The figurative sense — any sudden, embarrassing false note in an otherwise smooth situation — simply carries the same sound outside the concert hall.
More idioms — The Absurd
- estar en la luna de Valencia — Completely distracted or absent-minded, oblivious to what's happening around you.
- avere la coda di paglia — Feel guilty about something because you're afraid of being discovered or criticized.
- 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다 (Horangido je mal hamyeon onda) — Speaking of someone often enough may cause them to unexpectedly appear; talk of the devil.
- пускать пыль в глаза (puskat' pyl' v glaza) — To deceive or mislead someone, creating false impressions through trickery.
- meter os pés pelas mãos — Make a clumsy mistake or bungle something badly through carelessness.
- 杞憂 (Kiyū) — Unnecessary worry about things that won't happen; baseless anxiety.
More French idioms
- Quand les poules auront des dents — Never — it describes something that will simply never happen.
- Il y a anguille sous roche — Something suspicious is quietly going on beneath the surface.
- Ménager la chèvre et le chou — To try to please both sides of a conflict without committing to either.
- Avoir la gueule de bois — To be hungover.
- Filer à l'anglaise — To leave discreetly without saying goodbye.
- Se mettre sur son trente-et-un — To dress up in your very best clothes.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.