Un oiseau rare
Meaning: An exceptional find; someone with an unlikely combination of qualities.
Language: French
Literally: A rare bird
Category: Animals
Origin: From Juvenal's rara avis in terris, a rare bird on this earth — his example being a black swan, then believed not to exist. It is used sincerely in French and ironically about as often.
More idioms — Animals
- Les moutons de Panurge — People who follow the crowd without thinking.
- Charger la mule — To pile on far too much; to overcharge someone.
- Ne pas valoir un pet de lapin — To be entirely worthless.
- Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop — You cannot permanently suppress your real character.
- Comme un poisson dans l'eau — Completely at ease in one's element.
- Tuer la poule aux œufs d'or — To destroy a source of steady profit out of greed for all of it at once.
More French idioms
- C'est la mer à boire — It is an impossible or endless task — most often used in the negative.
- Faire son miel de quelque chose — To turn something to one's own advantage.
- La substantifique moelle — The essential substance of something, reached only by real effort.
- On ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des œufs — Worthwhile results require some damage along the way.
- Refiler la patate chaude — To hand an awkward problem to someone else.
- Dans le pétrin — In serious trouble.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
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