In the new show from Europe 1, "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern examines the roots of an expression of everyday life.
Tuesday, he is interested in the origin of "fou à bind" and "pas folle la waspe", phrases intimately linked by the history of France but whose meaning is diametrically opposed.
640 years ago, to the day, Charles VI the mad succeeded Charles V the wise. France then went from wisdom to madness. Stéphane Bern, who every day in
Historically yours
with Matthieu Noël dissects an expression that we use every day without always knowing its origin, looks at the formulas "crazy to bind" and "not crazy the wasp".
>> Find the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here
“The first of the two expressions dates from the 17th century. At that time, people with serious disorders left the medical profession helpless. force So the expression 'madman' represents the one who is tied up in order to control him.
From 'not stupid the wasp' to 'not crazy the wasp'
The second expression, 'pas folle la guêpe', is an astonishing phrase that emerged in the middle of the 19th century.
It was also originally said 'not stupid the wasp' and it is the cheeky Arletty who, in the film
Attenuating circumstances,
popularized the expression in 1939. Of a cunning person or capable of subtle reasoning, we say how shrewd she is.
Thin, like the waist of a wasp hence the explanation of the expression 'pas folle la wasp'.
Let us also have a small thought for the basque which gives a thin waist to the one who wears it, but which is not the feminine of 'corset'.
This feminine underwear must have made more than one honest man completely… 'crazy'.
Here we are, the circle is complete. "