Un choix cornélien
Meaning: A dilemma in which every option requires sacrificing something one is bound to.
Language: French
Literally: A Cornelian choice
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From the tragedies of Pierre Corneille, above all Le Cid, where Rodrigue must choose between avenging his father and keeping the woman he loves. The point is that both duties are real, which is what separates it from a merely hard decision.
More idioms — Daily Life
- À son corps défendant — Reluctantly; against one's own will.
- Corvéable à merci — Available to be worked without limit and without recourse.
- Avoir la cote — To be well regarded; to be popular.
- Sans coup férir — Without any resistance at all; effortlessly.
- Un coup de fil — A telephone call.
- Tomber comme un couperet — To land suddenly and irrevocably, as of bad news.
More French idioms
- Faire la cour à quelqu'un — To court someone romantically.
- La cour des grands — The top tier, where the serious players are.
- Une fois n'est pas coutume — One exception does not establish a habit.
- Pendre la crémaillère — To hold a housewarming.
- Riche comme Crésus — Enormously wealthy.
- La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile — Faulting a work costs nothing compared with making one.
From our proverbs
- When two ride together one must ride behind. — Hierarchies emerge naturally when people work jointly; someone must defer or follow the o…
- You would make me believe the moon is made of green cheese. — Absurd claims require absurd evidence; gullibility has limits even when persuasion is ski…
- Fear not the loss of the bell more than the loss of the steeple. — Don't obsess over minor possessions when greater structures—relationships, principles, li…
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