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Ne connaître ni d'Ève ni d'Adam

Meaning: Not to know someone at all.

Language: French

Literally: To know neither from Eve nor from Adam

Category: Daily Life

Origin: The reference is to the first humans, so not knowing someone by either line means having no connection whatsoever. English keeps half of it in not knowing someone from Adam.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Fauché comme les blés — Completely broke.
  • S'inscrire en faux — To formally deny something and challenge its truth.
  • Cherchez la femme — There is a woman behind this somewhere.
  • Jeter l'argent par les fenêtres — To spend recklessly and pointlessly.
  • Croire dur comme fer — To believe something with complete and unshakeable conviction.
  • Le fer de lance — The leading element of an effort; the part that goes in first.

More French idioms

  • Avoir le feu sacré — To be driven by genuine, burning vocation.
  • Être tout feu tout flamme — To be full of ardent enthusiasm.
  • Faire fi de quelque chose — To scorn something; to dismiss it as beneath notice.
  • Des grosses ficelles — Crude, obvious tricks that fool nobody.
  • Cousu de fil blanc — So obvious that the deception is plainly visible.
  • Mettre le doigt dans l'engrenage — To take a first small step that drags you into something far larger.

From our untranslatable words

  • Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
  • Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
  • Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…

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