“Fier comme un pou”
“Proud as a louse”
This is one of my favourite French expressions, as mysterious as it is funny. Personally, I never had the chance to analyse the psychological behaviour of lice. But with a bit of imagination, I can figure a tiny insect, pouncing on the Capillary jungle and, swollen with pride by his new discovery, standing up like the first colonialist until the inescapable destruction of his species. Helped by much more imagination, I could figure a scientific community, bringing up a lice colony on their own heads and examining the different characteristics of this new society. I know this idea is not in accordance with the crazy scientific myth without hair…
In fact, the original expression was
“Fier comme un pou sur le fumier”
“Proud as a louse on the dung” .
But finding a louse in the dung, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, it’s not easy! The solution to the riddle of the derivation of this expression is based on the history of the word “louse” (In French, “pou”) : “pou” is a dialectal form of “poul “, which meant ” young cock “. Here we are ! The French cockerel of course! As the other saying goes :
“Fier comme un coq”
” Proud as a cock “.
Although, it’s interesting to note that the French symbol, this animal that makes the froggies so patriotic and proud, became, in the history of language, a tiny louse…But after all, and like a famous French humorist used to say :
” the cockerel remains the only animal that can sing with its feet in the dung .”
I love insects too. And French and Language crossover. In German a butterfly is ‘Falter’ which means ‘folder’ and a moth is a ‘Nachtfalter’ which is a ‘night folder’ and another word for butterfly is: ‘Schmetterling’ which literally means ‘the little one who smashes through’. I miss speaking German a lot. I am trapped at the bottom of the world in sunny Australia. I have been releiving teaching and I have used insects, particularly cicadas and a poem by C.J Dennis called ‘The Triantiwontigongalope’ which is about a fantasty insect. Will post the children’s art on my Flickr page and you can have a look.
Guten Tag Barbara!
I am living right now in sunny Spain, but I miss speaking German a lot too… I will forget it eventually… what a pity, such a wonderful language!
Very interesting comment…. I don’t remember exactly: is a louse a “floh” in German?
Our theme in Cafe Crem is “National proverbs and sayings” this month… you might be interested to have a look there and share with us some expressions from Australia… it would be wonderful!
Hello Barbara,
Thank you very much for you interesting comment about some german words. I had a look on your Flickr page and must say that I am impressed by your artistics creations. Strong and original personality, I like it. I will go later for see the children’s art too. Thanks to you, I read the poem of C.J. Dennis I didn’t know. A très bientôt Barbara!
Barbara and others,
I see from this post you are from Australia. I went to see the movie with Hugh Jackman and Nichole Kidman and it was fantastic. A great look into the down under, but that is not so bad as the Great White North of Canada.
referencing,
“I am trapped at the bottom of the world in sunny Australia”
Contessine. What unique interests you have. Write me to tell me more at mwp at gmail dot com [replace "at" with @ and dot with . ]
kindest, michael [from cafe crem but I am not writing there now]