Merde !
Meaning: Good luck — said to a performer before going on stage.
Language: French
Literally: Shit!
Category: The Absurd
Origin: In the era of horse-drawn carriages, a full house left a great deal of dung outside the theater, so the quantity was the measure of the audience. Wishing someone plenty of it is wishing them a full room, and answering merci is held to break the charm.
More idioms — The Absurd
- Voilà pourquoi votre fille est muette — Said of a grand explanation that explains nothing.
- Passez, muscade ! — Hey presto — said when something vanishes suspiciously conveniently.
- Se croire le premier moutardier du pape — To have a wildly inflated sense of one's own importance.
- Mystère et boule de gomme — Nobody has the faintest idea.
- Promettre monts et merveilles — To promise far more than could ever be delivered.
- De la poudre de perlimpinpin — A worthless remedy sold with great confidence.
More French idioms
- Entre le marteau et l'enclume — Caught between two opposing forces with no way out.
- Un pavé dans la mare — A revelation or intervention that disturbs a settled situation.
- Il y a de l'orage dans l'air — Trouble is brewing.
- Rouler sur l'or — To be enormously wealthy.
- Valoir son pesant d'or — To be extremely valuable.
- Manu militari — By force; with physical compulsion.
From our proverbs
- There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. — Willful ignorance is more impenetrable than physical deafness; people reject truth they r…
- Tell that tale to a deaf man. — Wasting effort communicating with someone unwilling or unable to listen yields nothing.
- It's a wicked thing to make a dearth one's garner. — Hoarding grain during scarcity exploits others' hunger for personal profit, compounding c…
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