Pas folle, la guêpe !
Meaning: Said of someone shrewd enough not to be taken in.
Language: French
Literally: Not mad, the wasp!
Category: Animals
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 idioms — Animals
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Da steppt der Bär — It's going to be a great party.
- Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift — I can't believe it! That's outrageous!
More French idioms
- En rester comme deux ronds de flan — To be utterly dumbfounded.
- Tirer au flanc / Tirer au cul — To dodge work; to shirk.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
From our tongue twisters
- 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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