Un travail de Titan
Meaning: An undertaking of enormous scale.
Language: French
Literally: A Titan's labor
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The Titans were the generation of gods before the Olympians, associated with raw scale rather than skill. The phrase measures effort, not artistry — unlike un travail de bénédictin, which measures patience.
More idioms — Daily Life
- À tombeau ouvert — At reckless, life-threatening speed.
- Être mis sur la touche — To be sidelined and left out of things.
- Botter en touche — To dodge a question by changing the subject.
- Une tour d'ivoire — A position of deliberate detachment from ordinary life.
- La tournée des grands-ducs — A lavish night out taking in every fashionable establishment.
- Un coup de Trafalgar — A sudden catastrophic reversal, often felt to be underhand.
More French idioms
- Doré sur tranche — Extremely wealthy; luxuriously appointed.
- Le bout du tunnel — The first sign that a long difficulty is ending.
- Brûler ses vaisseaux — To destroy any possibility of retreat.
- Vérité en deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà — What counts as true depends on which side of a border you stand.
- Un vieux de la vieille — A veteran of long standing.
- En quatrième vitesse — At top speed; as fast as possible.
From our tongue twisters
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
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