Tirer le portrait

Literally: To draw the portrait

Example: “Le photographe du village nous a tiré le portrait devant l'église.” — The village photographer took our picture in front of the church.

Origin: Nearly a pleonasm, if you know the old senses. In the Middle Ages traire and tirer shared several meanings — to head towards, to loose a missile weapon, and to draw a line — and tirer eventually took them all over, including the last. Portrait comes from portraire, that is por traire, in order to draw, and by the middle of the 16th century it meant the painted likeness of a face or bust; tirer quelqu'un meant to make their portrait at the same period, and by the end of that century the word had also stretched to cover a description in words. So tirer le portrait first meant simply to draw one. From the middle of the 19th century, as photographs displaced painted portraits, both it and tirer quelqu'un narrowed to the camera.