FrenchLa vache !
Meaning: An exclamation — either at someone's rottenness, or, just as often, at something impressive.
Literally: The cow!
Example: “La vache ! Tu as vu la taille de ce poisson ?” — Holy cow! Did you see the size of that fish?
English equivalent: Holy cow!
Equivalents in other languages
Polish: rany koguta Literally: Rooster's wounds
English: holy cow!
Origin: The insult came first. A cow can deliver a coup de pied en vache, a sudden sideways kick from one hind leg with no warning at all, and the sheer sneakiness of it gave a placid animal a name for being sly and vicious; Gaston Esnault dates vache ! in this sense to 1880. Aimed at a person it meant roughly what l'enfoiré ! means now, and modern French tends to reach for something coarser still. Then the phrase did what exclamations do and turned around completely. By antiphrasis — the same move that lets English say you monster to someone who has just done something wonderful — la vache ! became an expression of admiration, and that is how you will usually hear it today: at a magic trick, at a bill, at a piece of news. Same two words, opposite verdicts, and only the tone to tell them apart.
More French idioms
- Avoir une veine de cocu To be outrageously, undeservedly lucky.
- Bon vent ! Safe travels — or, said in the right tone, good riddance.
- Comme la vérole sur le bas clergé Suddenly and with great violence — descending on something all at once.
- Des vertes et des pas mûres Shocking or outrageous things — and, by extension, a very rough time of it.
- Prendre une veste To suffer a defeat, especially at the polls.
- Montrer de quel bois on se chauffe To show someone what one is made of — almost always a threat: you're about to find out ho…
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