La portion congrue
Meaning: A bare minimum, grudgingly given.
Language: French
Literally: The congruous portion
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The portion congrue was the fixed minimum stipend a parish priest received from the tithe-holder, set by law and famously inadequate. Congrue meant merely sufficient, which is the whole complaint.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Saoul comme un Polonais — Extremely drunk.
- Défendre son pré carré — To protect one's own territory or area of authority.
- Lâcher la proie pour l'ombre — To give up something real in pursuit of something illusory.
- Nul n'est prophète en son pays — Recognition is hardest to win from the people who know you.
- Une victoire à la Pyrrhus — A win whose cost makes it indistinguishable from defeat.
- En quarantaine — In quarantine; isolated from contact.
More French idioms
- Tomber en quenouille — To decline into neglect; to fall apart through mismanagement.
- Sans queue ni tête — Making no sense at all.
- Être sur le qui-vive — To be tensely alert.
- En rade — Stranded; left behind.
- Faire du ramdam — To make a great deal of noise.
- Un remède de bonne femme — A folk cure of doubtful value.
From our compliments & insults
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
- Courir sur le haricot — To get badly on someone's nerves.
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