FrenchPas folle, la guêpe !
Meaning: Said of someone shrewd enough not to be taken in.
Literally: Not mad, the wasp!
Example: “Elle a lu les petites lignes du contrat avant de signer : pas folle, la guêpe !” — She read the fine print before signing: she's nobody's fool!
English equivalent: Nobody's fool
Equivalents in other languages
English: nobody's fool
Origin: The joke is a pun, and it is on fine. By the middle of the 19th century guêpe (wasp) was already a word for a canny, sharp-witted person, because such a person is called fine — meaning shrewd — and the wasp is famous for its extremely fine waist. The original form was pas bête, la guêpe, which is funnier than what replaced it, since a wasp is a bête (an animal) as well as bête (stupid). Pas folle la guêpe took over in the 20th century, and Arletty made it famous in the 1939 film Circonstances atténuantes.
More French idioms
- En rester comme deux ronds de flan To be utterly dumbfounded.
- Tirer au flanc To dodge work; to shirk.
- Taper sur le système To get on someone's nerves.
- Habiller quelqu'un pour l'hiver To run someone down, usually behind their back.
- Mettre le holà To put a stop to something.
- Ça me fait une belle jambe That is no use to me whatsoever.
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
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