Valoir son pesant d'or
Meaning: To be extremely valuable.
Language: French
Literally: To be worth one's weight in gold
Category: Nature
Origin: The measure is old and was once literal in ransom and reward. French and English arrived at the identical phrase independently, both from the same practice.
More idioms — Nature
- Pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse — Constant movement prevents anything from accumulating.
- Les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivières — Small contributions accumulate into something substantial.
- Un soleil de plomb — A crushing, oppressive heat.
- Une planche de salut — A last resort; the only remaining hope.
- Sentir le sapin — To be close to death.
- Une tempête dans un verre d'eau — A great commotion over something trivial.
More French idioms
- Manu militari — By force; with physical compulsion.
- Faire le matamore — To swagger and bluster without the courage to back it up.
- Vendre la mèche — To give away a secret or a plan.
- Le revers de la médaille — The unwelcome other side of something good.
- À beau mentir qui vient de loin — Travellers' tales cannot be checked, so they are told without restraint.
- Être à la merci de quelqu'un — To be entirely in someone's power.
From our proverbs
- Desert and reward seldom keep company. — Virtue without recognition tests whether you act from integrity or merely for praise.
- What one man despises, another craves. — Individual values differ so radically that one person's rejection becomes another's treas…
- Hanging and wiving go by destiny. — Marriage and execution are equally inevitable forces beyond individual control or choice.
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