Haut les cœurs !
Meaning: Take courage; lift your spirits.
Language: French
Literally: Up with the hearts!
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: A direct translation of the liturgical Sursum corda, the celebrant's call at the start of the Eucharistic prayer. It moved from the Mass to military and sporting exhortation without changing its shape.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
- Un écorché vif — Someone painfully hypersensitive to everything around them.
- L'huile de coude — Hard physical effort; elbow grease.
More French idioms
- Aux calendes grecques — Never — used of something postponed indefinitely.
- Un cautère sur une jambe de bois — A remedy that is completely useless.
- Scier la branche sur laquelle on est assis — To destroy the thing your own position depends on.
- Tomber de Charybde en Scylla — To escape one danger only to meet a worse one.
- Proposer la botte à quelqu'un — To proposition someone sexually.
- Pousser le bouchon un peu loin — To go too far; to overstep.
From our false friends
- 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'.
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
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