Mi-figue, mi-raisin

Literally: Half fig, half grape

Example: “Elle a accueilli la nouvelle de sa mutation avec un sourire mi-figue, mi-raisin.” — She greeted the news of her transfer with a half-pleased, half-annoyed smile.

Origin: An old phrase that has shifted sense repeatedly. Figs and raisins were the preferred dried fruits of Lent, which explains their being paired at all, though not why they are set against each other. In the 15th century the phrase used moitié rather than mi and meant partly good, partly bad; in the 16th, Guillaume Postel describes a troop of soldiers moitié figue, moitié raisin, meaning half Muslim and half Christian. The Académie française records the modern sense arriving in the 17th century, alongside a parallel one — half willingly, half under compulsion. The short mi only turns up in works of the early 19th century. There may also have been a straightforward opposition of quality behind it, the sweet grape against the fig, which carried a distinctly less appetizing reputation in period proverbs. A neat story about Corinthian merchants padding shipments of raisins to Venice with cheaper, heavier figs has no written evidence and looks invented after the fact.