Rouler un patin / Rouler une galoche
Meaning: To kiss deeply, with tongue.
Language: French
Literally: To roll a skate
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Rouler transitively means to move a thing by turning it over on itself, which accounts well enough for the verb. The TLFi, citing Esnault, has the first attestation in 1927, though it only spread after the Second World War. The patin is harder. Some read it as a deformation of patte in its old sense of a rag — as in pattemouille — standing in for the tongue, except that this sense of patte had fallen out of use by the middle of the 19th century, well before the phrase existed. More likely it is the noun taken from the verb patiner, which Cellard and Rey record in early 20th-century slang meaning to caress a partner somewhere sensitive. Roller skates being in vogue at the same moment will not have hurt. Galoche is slang for a shoe, an object in close contact with the floor-polishing patin, so the substitution is the same joke; pelle, saucisse and escalope also turn up, with no explanation at all.
More idioms — Body & Senses
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- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Couper les cheveux en quatre — To over-analyze or split hairs.
- Se regarder le nombril — To be self-centered or narcissistic.
- Tomaten auf den Augen haben — To be oblivious to what's right in front of you.
- Die Daumen drücken — To wish someone good luck (like crossing fingers).
More French idioms
- 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.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.
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