Il ne faut prendre de son ami tout ce qu’on peut = Friends are like fiddle-strings, they must not be screwed too tight.
“Les amis de l’heure présente Ont la nature du melon, Il en faut essayer cinquante Avant qu’on rencontre un bon.” Claude Mermet (1550–1605).
= Trust not a new friend nor an old enemy; Acquaintances are many, but friends are few.
Amitié
Faites mes amitiés à votre frère = Remember me kindly to your brother.
Amour
Faites-le pour l’amour de moi = Do it for my sake.
L’Amour force toutes les serrures = Love laughs at locksmiths.
Vivre d’amour et d’eau fraîche (or, claire) = To live on bread and cheese and kisses.
*On revient toujours à ses premières amours = One always returns to one’s first love; Who loves well, forgets ill.
[C. G. Étienne, Joconde, iii. 1.]
Jamais l’amour ne se paye que par l’amour = Love can neither be bought nor sold, its only price is love.
[“Amour au cœur me poind
Quand bien-aimé je suis,
Mais aimer je ne puis
Quand on ne m’aime point.
Chacun soit adverti
De faire comme moi,
Car d’aimer sans party
C’est un trop grand esmoy.”
Clément Marot.
Lieb ohne Gegenlieb ist wie eine Frage ohne Antwort.]
On dirait qu’il le fait pour l’amour du bon Dieu = He does it with such bad grace that one would say he did it for conscience’ sake.
[“Qui que tu sois, voici ton maître,
Il l’est, le fut, ou le doit être.”
Voltaire, Inscription pour une statue de l’Amour dans les Jardins de Maisons.
“A l’Amour on résiste en vain;
Qui n’aima jamais aimera demain.”
De Benserade, L’Amour, ed. 1690, p. 234.]
Amuser
Amuser le tapis = To talk a great deal without coming to the point; To talk time away.
Ne vous amusez pas en route = Do not lose an instant on the way.
An
Je m’en moque comme de l’an quarante = I don’t care a straw for it.
[There was a superstition that the world would come to an end in 1040; after it had passed, this saying arose. The French also say “Je m’en moque comme de Colin-tampon.” Colin-tampon is the name given to the Swiss roll of the drum; and as the other soldiers in the French army paid no attention to it out of jealousy and esprit de corps, this saying arose. Another variant is “Je m’en soucie autant qu’un poisson d’une pomme.”]
Bon an, mal an = One year with another; On an average.
Âne
Ressembler à l’âne de Buridan = Not to know what to do.
[Jean Buridan was a dialectician of the fourteenth century, and Rector of the University of Paris. One of his most famous dilemmas was that of the donkey equally hungry and thirsty, which was placed halfway between a pail of water and a load of hay. If the animal had no free-will, it would remain motionless between two equal attractions, and so die of hunger and thirst.]
Contes de Peau d’Âne = Nursery tales.
[A name derived from a tale of Perrault, in which the heroine is so called.]
Pour un point (or, Faute d’un point) Martin perdit son âne = For want of a nail the shoe was lost (or, the miller lost his mare); Be careful of trifles.
[This is said of a person who loses something valuable through a trifle. The Abbey of Asello (Latin asellus = little ass) was taken from the Abbot Martin on account of his punctuation of a sentence over the gateway. Instead of: Porta patens esto, nulli claudaris honesto (Gate be open, and be closed to no honest man), he punctuated: Porta patens esto nulli, claudaris honesto (Gate, be open to none, be closed to an honest man). His successor corrected the mistake, and added: Uno pro puncto caruit Martinus Asello.]
Il fait l’âne pour avoir du son = He simulates stupidity to gain some material advantage.
Brider un âne par la queue = To do anything in exactly the wrong manner; To get hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Il n’y a point d’âne plus mal bâté que celui du commun = What is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
[Walton, Compleat Angler, Part i. chap. ii.]
Ange
Être aux anges = To be delighted, in raptures, in the seventh heaven.
Un ange bouffi = A chubby child.
Anguille
Échapper comme une anguille = To be as slippery as an eel.
Quand on veut trop serrer l’anguille, elle s’échappe = “Much would have more and lost all”; He who is too greedy loses everything. (See Embrasser.)
Vouloir rompre l’anguille au genou = To attempt an impossibility.
Il est comme l’anguille de Melun (more correctly, Languille de Melun), il crie avant qu’on l’écorche = He is like the eel of Melun, he cries out before he is hurt.
[An actor, called Languille, was once acting the part of St. Bartholomew at Melun, when he was so frightened at the entry of the executioner to flay him alive, that he rushed off the stage yelling.]
Il y a quelque anguille sous roche = There is a snake in the grass; I can smell a rat.
[Lat. Latet anguis in herba.]
Anonyme
Société anonyme = Limited Liability Company (because the names of the shareholders are unknown to the public).
Anse
Faire danser l’anse (or, le manche) du panier = To make dishonest profits on marketing (of servants); To gain a market-penny.
Faire le pot (or, panier) à deux anses = To put one’s arms akimbo.
[Often said of a gentleman who has a lady on each arm.]
Antan
“Où sont les neiges d’antan?” = Where are the snows of yester-year?
[Antan is an old French word derived from ante and annus. The quotation is the refrain of François Villon’s famous “Ballade des Dames du temps jadis.”]
Apache
C’est un apache (pop.) = He is a hooligan.
Apothicaire
C’est un apothicaire sans sucre = He is unprovided with the necessities of his profession.
[Druggists in France formerly sold sugar which they used almost in every preparation. Hence one who had no sugar was badly stocked.]