Un homme de l'art
Meaning: A qualified professional, especially a physician.
Language: French
Literally: A man of the art
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Art here keeps the older sense of a body of skilled practice, as in the art of medicine. The phrase survives mainly in legal and medical registers, where it distinguishes the trained practitioner from the amateur.
More idioms — Daily Life
- C'est du grand art — That is masterfully done.
- L'enfance de l'art — Utterly elementary; child's play.
- À l'article de la mort — At the very point of dying.
- De bon augure — A promising sign; its opposite, de mauvais augure, means ominous.
- Mesurer à l'aune de — To judge something by a particular standard.
- L'avocat du diable — Someone who argues a position they do not hold in order to test it.
More French idioms
- Dans tous les azimuts — In every direction at once; scattered and unfocused.
- Une tour de Babel — A place of hopeless confusion, especially one where nobody speaks the same language.
- Plier bagage — To pack up and clear off, usually in a hurry.
- Ça fait un bail — It has been ages.
- Un baiser de Judas — A show of affection that conceals a betrayal.
- La balle est dans votre camp — It is your turn to act; the decision now rests with you.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…
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