French Expression of the Day: Graisser la patte
This French expression might come up during a political scandal.
Why do I need to know graisser la patte?
Because this expression uses a word that comes up more often than you might expect.
What does it mean?
Graisser la patte - roughly pronounced greh-say lah pat - directly translates as ‘to grease the paw’, though it really means to bribe someone or to offer a bribe.
However, if heard aloud, you might be a bit confused as the word pâtes (pasta) sounds very similar to the word patte (paw).
This expression dates back to a very specific moment during the Middle Ages when there was a great ham market in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
A royal edict allowed the clergy to charge a fee when selling pork and ham, but the sales were meant to be regulated.
However, not everyone followed the rules. The merchants who wished to curry favour with inspectors or people monitoring sales might give them a piece of bacon, which literally greased their hands.
Originally, people likely said graisser la main, but due to the unscrupulous nature of the interaction, it eventually became graisser la patte.
The English equivalent would be 'to grease someone's palm' - although it's not clear whether this came from the French expression, or whether bacon-based bribery was a common practice across Europe.
Similar to other colloquial French expressions, using the term patte (paw) to replace the official term for the human body part main (hand) is a way of making something pejorative or less formal.
This is similar to the way that gueule (mug or muzzle) can be used in slang - oftentimes offensive - expressions instead of bouche (mouth).
Patte comes up surprisingly often in French conversation and expressions that are unrelated to animals - for example, to be ‘on all fours’ would be être à quatre pattes.
Use it like this
Il n'a pu lancer son projet qu'après avoir graissé la patte du responsable. - He only managed to get his project going after bribing the official.
Ils m'ont dit que je devais graisser la patte du conseiller pour entrer. Je ne sais pas ce que j'en pense. - They said I have to bribe the adviser to get in. I don’t know how I feel about that.
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Why do I need to know graisser la patte?
Because this expression uses a word that comes up more often than you might expect.
What does it mean?
Graisser la patte - roughly pronounced greh-say lah pat - directly translates as ‘to grease the paw’, though it really means to bribe someone or to offer a bribe.
However, if heard aloud, you might be a bit confused as the word pâtes (pasta) sounds very similar to the word patte (paw).
This expression dates back to a very specific moment during the Middle Ages when there was a great ham market in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
A royal edict allowed the clergy to charge a fee when selling pork and ham, but the sales were meant to be regulated.
However, not everyone followed the rules. The merchants who wished to curry favour with inspectors or people monitoring sales might give them a piece of bacon, which literally greased their hands.
Originally, people likely said graisser la main, but due to the unscrupulous nature of the interaction, it eventually became graisser la patte.
The English equivalent would be 'to grease someone's palm' - although it's not clear whether this came from the French expression, or whether bacon-based bribery was a common practice across Europe.
Similar to other colloquial French expressions, using the term patte (paw) to replace the official term for the human body part main (hand) is a way of making something pejorative or less formal.
This is similar to the way that gueule (mug or muzzle) can be used in slang - oftentimes offensive - expressions instead of bouche (mouth).
Patte comes up surprisingly often in French conversation and expressions that are unrelated to animals - for example, to be ‘on all fours’ would be être à quatre pattes.
Use it like this
Il n'a pu lancer son projet qu'après avoir graissé la patte du responsable. - He only managed to get his project going after bribing the official.
Ils m'ont dit que je devais graisser la patte du conseiller pour entrer. Je ne sais pas ce que j'en pense. - They said I have to bribe the adviser to get in. I don’t know how I feel about that.
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