Sur la paille
Meaning: Reduced to real poverty.
Language: French
Literally: On the straw
Category: Daily Life
Origin: In the 12th century paille meant a bale of wheat, and a little later the whole cereal stalk once the grain was off it. Straw has stood for poverty since the 13th century, and the logic is plain: it is what is left over from a crop, a thing of no real value, so a bed of it is a bed made of waste. Being obliged to sleep in a barn on the leavings, with no means of affording a proper soft bed in a proper room, is poverty stated as an image. Furetière has the phrase in the 17th century with coucher; être, finir, mourir and mettre all attached themselves later.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Avoir un nom à coucher dehors — To have a name nobody can pronounce or remember.
- Être dans les petits papiers de quelqu'un — To be in someone's good books; to enjoy their favor.
- Faire un pataquès — To make a clumsy verbal slip, or a blunder generally; also, to make an enormous fuss over…
- Patin couffin — And so on and so forth; et cetera.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
More French idioms
- Coûter la peau des fesses / Coûter les yeux de la tête — To cost an absolute fortune.
- Rouler un patin / Rouler une galoche — To kiss deeply, with tongue.
- 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.
From our false friends
- Ignorer — Actually means 'to be unaware of' or 'not to know'. J'ignore la réponse = I don't know th…
- Déception — Actually means 'disappointment'. For deception (a trick), say tromperie.
- Monnaie — Actually means 'change' or 'coins'. Money in general is l'argent.
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