Pour des prunes
Meaning: For nothing; in vain.
Language: French
Literally: For plums
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: In Middle French a prune was not only a fruit. From the 13th century it also meant a blow, a stroke of luck good or bad, and — the sense that matters — a thing of no value at all: ne pas valoir prune was to be worth nothing, and ne preisier une prune, from the end of the 12th century, was to hold someone in no esteem. The expression grows out of that at the start of the 16th. The reason usually given is a story: that the Crusaders came home from the failed Second Crusade around 1150 with nothing but plum trees from Damascus, and that the king demanded whether they had gone all that way pour des prunes. It is a good story and probably a legend — plums were known in France since antiquity, the plum's low value was established well before the crusades some historians blame, and the likeliest reason it was worth nothing is that it was an extremely common fruit. The Damascus variety did leave something behind, though: grafted onto a local stock it produced the prune d'Ente, which is what the pruneau d'Agen is made from, and which actually comes from the Lot-et-Garonne.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- 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.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
- Mettre son grain de sel — To give an unsolicited opinion.
More French idioms
- S'en moquer comme de l'an quarante — To not care in the slightest.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- 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.
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…
Browse all untranslatable words →
Loading the full interactive collection…