FrenchCrudeSe magner la rondelle
Meaning: To get a move on. Vulgar.
Literally: To shift one's washer
Example: “Magne-toi la rondelle, le film commence dans cinq minutes !” — Shake a leg; the movie starts in five minutes!
English equivalent: Shake a leg
Equivalents in other languages
English: shake a leg
Origin: Nothing to do with hardware. The rondelle is slang for the anus, in that sense from the end of the 19th century, and the phrase belongs to a family in which any word for the backside will serve — se magner le train, se magner le cul, and so on with popotin or derche. The verb is older and quite respectable: from the 16th century se manier meant to move or to stir oneself, and se magner is a popular deformation of it from the middle of the 18th. Aristide Bruant, at the very start of the 20th century, is credited with attaching the various slang backsides to it.
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