Vieux comme Hérode
Meaning: Extremely ancient.
Language: French
Literally: Old as Herod
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Herod the Great died in 4 BC, which supplies the antiquity. French has a small stock of these — vieux comme le monde, vieux comme Mathusalem — and Herod is the least flattering of them.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Un combat homérique — A struggle of epic scale and duration.
- Un homme averti en vaut deux — Advance warning doubles a person's effectiveness.
- Honi soit qui mal y pense — Let anyone who reads something improper into this be the one disgraced.
- À huis clos — In closed session, with the public excluded.
- Mettre à l'index — To blacklist something or exclude it from acceptable use.
- Un violon d'Ingres — A serious passion pursued outside one's actual profession.
More French idioms
- Un coup de Jarnac — An unexpected decisive stroke, delivered within the rules but not quite sportingly.
- Jeux de mains, jeux de vilains — Horseplay ends badly.
- On ne peut être juge et partie — Nobody may rule on a matter in which they have an interest.
- Un jugement de Salomon — A ruling of great wisdom that exposes the truth by testing it.
- C'est kif-kif — It makes no difference at all.
- Une fine lame — A highly skilled practitioner.
From our proverbs
- A clear conscience is a sure card. — An undisturbed mind from honest conduct provides reliable confidence in facing life's cha…
- When all is consumed repentance comes too late. — Excess pursued without restraint leaves no resources or time for correction once damage b…
- Content is the true philosopher's stone. — Accepting what you have transforms ordinary existence into genuine wealth and peace.
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