Y a pas de lézard !
Meaning: No problem; it's all fine.
Language: French
Literally: There's no lizard!
Category: Animals
Origin: Three explanations, none settled. Pierre Merle's 1998 slang dictionary puts it in the music world, where since the 1970s a lézard is a parasitic hiss that ruins a take and forces a re-record — a problem, and an irritating one. Others take it from the lézarde, a crack in a wall, named for the lizard both by its shape and by the reptile's habit of slipping inside such cracks: no lézard between two people means no crack in the relationship. A third, which holds up well, reaches for a forgotten slang sense of lézard recorded by Alfred Delvau in 1866 — a bad companion, a deceiver — so the absence of one means nobody is being played. The phrase spread in the 1980s, carried first by the song Dur-dur from the band Alex et les lézards and then by Michel Blanc's film Marche à l'ombre, where it recurs throughout.
More idioms — Animals
- Avoir vu le loup — Said of a young woman, to have had sex; also, in some regions, to be hoarse.
- Enculer les mouches — To split hairs; to fuss over trivial detail. Vulgar.
- Laisser pisser le mérinos — To let things take their course; to wait it out.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
More French idioms
- Con comme la lune — Exceptionally stupid.
- Faire un malheur — To cause a scene with serious consequences — or, oppositely, to be a runaway success.
- Se retrouver une main devant, une main derrière — To be left with absolutely nothing.
- Se faire la malle — To clear off; to make a run for it.
- Ne pas y aller de main morte — To hit hard; to act without the slightest restraint.
- Bourrer le mou — To feed someone lies; to try to con them.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.
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