Pédé comme un phoque
Meaning: Said of a man: unmistakably gay. *Pédé* is a homophobic slur and the phrase is offensive.
Language: French
Literally: Queer as a seal
Category: Animals
Origin: First the word: pédé is a clipping of pédéraste, from the Greek, and although it now means a gay man it once meant a man with an improper interest in children. Then the seal, which explains nothing at all — no observation supports the idea that seals behave homosexually — so what is left is a stack of guesses, none confirmed. The most repeated is nautical: a spoken deformation of foc, the jib, supposedly because that sail takes the wind from behind. Anyone who has sailed close-hauled can dispose of that, since the jib fills perfectly with the wind near the bow. A second nautical version has the jib set on the opposite side of the boat's axis from the mainsail, the mainsail standing for heterosexuality. A third is a chain of puns: the old slander about Greek morals gives pédé comme un Grec, Greeks suggest Genoese, and a large jib happens to be called a génois — so Grec to Génois to foc to phoque. A fourth hears pine and pède inside pinnipède. A fifth has a ship's boy on a polar voyage mistaking, from a distance, the movement of a beach full of seals. A sixth points at the loud breath a seal takes on surfacing. And Alphonse Boudard, who was a great bender of words and should be read with caution, proposed a deformation of pédé comme un fox, the fox terrier having a reputation for mounting anything regardless of sex.
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
- Tailler une pipe — To perform fellatio. Vulgar.
- Pisser dans sa culotte / Pisser dans son froc — To laugh helplessly — or, oppositely, to be terrified.
- Être à côté de la plaque — To be wide of the mark; to answer something other than the question asked.
- Ça va durer trois plombes — It's going to take hours.
- Se chatouiller le poireau / S'astiquer la colonne — To masturbate, said of a man. Vulgar.
- Avoir la poisse — To have persistent, clinging bad luck.
From our compliments & insults
- T'as pas inventé le fil à couper le beurre — You're not exactly a genius — the wire to cut butter is about the most obvious tool imagi…
- Tête de mule — An impossibly stubborn person who refuses to change their mind no matter what.
- C'est une vraie chèvre — They're hopelessly stubborn and infuriating — a goat that refuses to be moved.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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