Sentir le sapin

Literally: To smell of fir

Example: “Avec sa toux de fumeur et ses quatre-vingt-quinze ans, il dit lui-même que ça sent le sapin.” — With his smoker's cough and ninety-five years, he says himself that he has one foot in the grave.

English equivalent: To have one foot in the grave

Origin: From the end of the 18th century. Fir is neither noble nor expensive, and for exactly that reason it was long what coffins were made of — so much so that by the end of that century a coffin was itself called une redingote de sapin, a fir overcoat. Saying of a man that he was beginning to smell of fir was therefore neither obscure nor kind: the implication is the planks he will shortly be lying between.