FrenchTravailler pour le roi de Prusse
Meaning: To work for nothing.
Literally: To work for the King of Prussia
Example: “Avec ce stage non rémunéré, j'ai l'impression de travailler pour le roi de Prusse.” — With this unpaid internship, I feel like I'm working for peanuts.
English equivalent: To work for peanuts
Equivalents in other languages
English: work for peanuts
Origin: In the texts from about the middle of the 19th century, and unexplained — four accounts circulate. The pay of Prussian mercenaries at the start of the 18th century was derisory. A song of 1757 mocking the Prince de Soubise's defeat at Rossbach contained the line il a travaillé pour le roi de Prusse. Frederick William I, father of the Frederick who won Rossbach, was miserly past all reason and paid those who worked for him very little. And Charles Rozan, in 1857, suggests the phrase is Voltaire's: he took refuge with Frederick the Great in 1750 and handled business for him against promises of reward that Frederick did not keep, which ended the friendship and left Voltaire complaining that he had worked for the King of Prussia.
More French idioms
- Se magner la rondelle To get a move on. Vulgar.
- Avoir les deux pieds dans le même sabot To be incapable of acting; to sit there doing nothing.
- Envoyer la sauce To ejaculate; to fire a burst from a weapon; or to open the throttle. Vulgar in the first…
- Passer à tabac To be given a severe beating, especially in police custody.
- Un coup de tabac A sudden violent squall at sea; by extension, a brutal turn of events.
- Être au taquet To be flat out, giving everything — or to have hit a limit that will not move.
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