ZIGGY PLAYED ... A STICK - vocabulary (French/English)

 

ZIG (masculine noun)

‘un zig’ or ‘zigue’ is an colloquial term that, depending on one’s disposition, can either mean ‘mate/buddy’ or ‘guy’ in the sense of ‘some idiot/generic unpleasant person’.  For any french speakers a more accurate description can be found here.

Colloquial as it may be, literary references, in the above link, containing the word seem to be limited to late 19th century to mid 20th century, so it’s not going to be the hippest slang ever - using vocabulary like this may force finger-on-the-pulse, language-deforming ados (teenagers) in Paris to bring out their best ‘WTF?!!’ faces and call you a pédé (fag, queer) or other similar derogatory terms.  It might be best to just stick to the more common ‘mec’ (guy) and have a secret ‘ziggy’ giggle to oneself.  Correct me if I’m wrong.

For any non-British anglophones, the photo above is of puppets Zig and Zag that frequently appeared on Saturday morning television in the 90s.  No, I have NO idea at all which one is Zig and which is Zag, sorry.

And if you enjoy having fun with the old-fashioned and innuendo then you might want to try this one on for size:

MAZETTE

which, if you choose to believe Wiktionary, means ‘bad little horse’ and as an exclamation means ‘My Goodness!’ in the sense of ‘Isn’t that a big’un!’

Original Photo by lemontreefreak21

DISCUTER A BÂTONS ROMPUS

‘to talk about this and that’

Once again I love the imagery that this phrase throws up when one attempts to approach it in a literal sense:

- discuter - to discuss- un bâton - stick- rompu - broken

Unfortunately I’m not sure what significance the ‘à’ has in this idiom, but either way it’s amusing to think of people talking about broken sticks/talking until sticks break.

Another interesting variant of an idiom:

je m’en suis mordu les doigts - I could have kicked myself

although the literal translation means ‘I bit my own fingers’

Original Photo by WaterFallFairy

AVOIR DE L’OSEILLE

This phrase translates as ‘to be rolling in it’, ‘it’ being ‘money’.

L’oseille is slang for cash, or ‘dough’ - an appropriate English equivalent considering that the literal meaning of the word has nothing at all to do with its usage in this context.  In reality, l’oseille means ‘sorrel’, a herb sometimes used in cooking.  So, remaining faithful to the structure of the british idiom translated of the French ‘avoir de l’oseille’, one could be said to be rolling around in herbs, or the sorrel, to be more precise.

Another slang term relating to cash brings us back to our old friend the bâton or ‘stick’:

un bâton - ten thousand francs

So if one were to be terribly American along the tradtion of ‘Hey darlin’, you look like a million bucks’, one could be misconstrued as having said ‘Hey chérie, you like like a stick’

…But that’s supermodels for you!