IdiomBody & Senses
FrenchCrude
FrenchCrudeS'envoyer en l'air
Meaning: To have sex.
Literally: To send oneself into the air
Example: “D'après les voisins, ils se sont envoyés en l'air toute la nuit.” — According to the neighbors, they were at it all night.
English equivalent: To roll in the hay
Equivalents in other languages
English: roll in the hay
Origin: Early 20th-century slang, recorded by Jean Lacassagne and Pierre Devaux in L'Argot du milieu. It draws on the long-standing association between sexual ecstasy and rising into the sky — the same image behind monter au septième ciel, to go up to the seventh heaven.
More French idioms
- Sentir le fagot To reek of heresy; more broadly, to arouse suspicion or invite condemnation.
- Faire ses ablutions To wash oneself; to do one's daily toilet.
- Bouché à l'émeri Dense, obtuse, narrow-minded; incapable of understanding.
- Griller un feu To drive through a traffic light that is red.
- Éclairer la lanterne de quelqu'un To supply the missing detail that lets someone finally understand.
- Outre mesure Excessively, unreasonably, to an unwarranted degree.
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