Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
avaler son rond de cuir
English translation:
...been so surprised he would have swallowed his elbow leather...
French term
avaler son rond de cuir
: (C'est Juve, inspecteur de la Surete, qui parle)"Tu comprends bien que si j'avais, dans l'etat de choses actuel, dmande a Fuselier un mandat d'amener contre Lady Beltham, contre une personne qui est legalement morte et enterre depuis plus de deux mois, cet excellent fonctionnaire en aurait, d'emotion, avale son rond de cuir. Patience, Fandor. Chaque chose vient en son temps. (....)"
Qu'est-ce que ca veut dire, "avaler son rond de cuir"?
Ne pouvant trouve ni dans le dictionnaire ni dans le Web...
Merci d'avance...
| 4 +3 | ...been so surprised he would have swallowed his elbow leather... |
:::::::::: (X)
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| 4 +1 | have a cow |
Tony M
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| 4 | (it would have been enough) to drive him up the wall |
Euqinimod (X)
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| 3 | They could have knocked him down with a feather |
Dave 72
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Jun 28, 2008 08:11: :::::::::: (X) changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
Jun 28, 2008 13:55: :::::::::: (X) Created KOG entry
PRO (3): Gad Kohenov, Anna Quail, :::::::::: (X)
Non-PRO (1): Richard Nice
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Proposed translations
...been so surprised he would have swallowed his elbow leather...
Jusque dans les années 1950, on parlait autrefois de "ronds de cuir", en référence au cuir rond que les employés qui écrivaient beaucoup portaient au coude pour ne pas élimer les chemises. Voir le roman de Courteline : "Messieurs les ronds de cuir".
| neutral |
Gad Kohenov
: Le Petit Robert gives a different solution.
1 min
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| agree |
Anna Quail
: Good explanation. In English, we would probably say something like 'swallow his pencil' or 'swallow his pen'. Un rond-de-cuir, un gratte-papier: a penpusher, pencil pusher, chairwarmer http://www.travelblog.org/Articles/2.html
13 mins
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Thanks Flo :)
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| neutral |
Richard Nice
: Flo's ideas rather better? Elbow-leather is more the old-fashioned schoolmaster than the civil servant
38 mins
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| neutral |
Laurence Idezak (X)
: Agree with Richard & Flo
41 mins
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| neutral |
cmwilliams (X)
: agree with Flo
1 hr
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| agree |
Helen Shiner
: Flo's idea excellent in this context
2 hrs
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Merci :)
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| agree |
Mark Nathan
: he'll chortle his herringbone (just a piece of nonsense, but gives you the idea)
4 hrs
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Merci :)
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| neutral |
sueaberwoman
: As I thought: (www.languefrançaise.net) 1885 Allusion au rond de cuir ou de caoutchouc que les employés mettent sur leurs chaises pour économiser leur fond de culotte (VIR) / Thus named after the leather cushion of his chair (MAR)
5 hrs
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| neutral |
Tony M
: The literal translation (somewhat debatable anyway) doesn't really convey the right image in EN, since the original metaphor is totally lost.
1 day 1 hr
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have a cow
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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-06-28 10:25:13 GMT)
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Taking up Flo's rather nice idea and running with it, I somehow feel that 'would have swallowed his pencil-sharpener' has the right sort of feel about it... a delightful image there of a pen-pusher who has nothing better to do all day than sharpen his pencils (even though he probably doesn't actually use them...)
| agree |
Anna Quail
: I like the 'pencil sharpener' idea - as you say, a delightful image :-)
21 hrs
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Thanks, Flo! :-)
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They could have knocked him down with a feather
(it would have been enough) to drive him up the wall
| neutral |
Tony M
: Not really here, Dominique; both of those suggest possibly long-term situations, whereas this is clearly talking about his reaction to a one-off surprise
26 mins
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Discussion