Perdre son latin
Meaning: To be completely baffled by something.
Language: French
Literally: To lose one's Latin
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Latin was the whole of formal learning, so losing it meant every intellectual resource had failed. The phrase concedes bafflement rather than ignorance.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Se reposer sur ses lauriers — To coast on past achievements instead of continuing to work.
- Au pied de la lettre / À la lettre — Literally, in the strictest sense.
- Entrer en lice — To join a contest or dispute.
- Se faire limoger — To be relieved of a post; to be sacked.
- Laver son linge sale en famille — Keep internal disputes private.
- Par le petit bout de la lorgnette — From a needlessly narrow point of view.
More French idioms
- Être une lumière — To be highly intelligent — used almost exclusively in the negative.
- Une lune de miel — The first happy period of a marriage, or of any new arrangement.
- Bien luné — In a good mood — and mal luné, in a bad one.
- Depuis belle lurette — For ages; for a very long time.
- Depuis des lustres — For a very long time.
- Pleurer comme une Madeleine — To cry copiously and without restraint.
From our tongue twisters
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- 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.
Loading the full interactive collection…