La langue de bois
Meaning: Rigid, evasive doublespeak — language cut off from reality that carries a deliberately rigged message.
Language: French
Literally: The wooden tongue
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Recorded in France only from the 1970s, borrowed from Russian: before the revolution langue de chêne, 'oak tongue', mocked the stifling style of tsarist bureaucracy, and the Bolshevik era did nothing to loosen it. Cattle also contract a fungal infection that stiffens the tongue, known by the same name.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Ne pas être dans son assiette — To feel out of sorts, physically or mentally off-form.
- Se défendre bec et ongles — To fight back with everything you have.
- Connaître bibliquement — To have had sex with someone.
- Se faire de la bile — To worry oneself sick.
- Dans le plus simple appareil — Stark naked.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
More French idioms
- Sentir le fagot — To reek of heresy; more broadly, to arouse suspicion or invite condemnation.
- Faire ses ablutions — To wash oneself; to do one's daily toilet.
- Bouché à l'émeri — Dense, obtuse, narrow-minded; incapable of understanding.
- Griller un feu — To drive through a traffic light that is red.
- Éclairer la lanterne de quelqu'un — To supply the missing detail that lets someone finally understand.
- Outre mesure — Excessively, unreasonably, to an unwarranted degree.
From our false friends
- Déception — Actually means 'disappointment'. For deception (a trick), say tromperie.
- Monnaie — Actually means 'change' or 'coins'. Money in general is l'argent.
- Sensible — Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
Loading the full interactive collection…