In the program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern looks at the roots of an expression of everyday life.
This Thursday he traces the history of the phrase "veil and steam", which designates people attracted both by the opposite sex and by those of the same sex.
Stéphane Bern suggests every day, in
Historically yours
with Matthieu Noël, to discover these expressions that we use on a daily basis without necessarily knowing their origin.
Thursday, it brings us to the discovery of the phrase "veil and steam", which designates people both attracted to the opposite sex and to those of the same sex.
>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here
When sailors left for long months at sea
I invite you to New Orleans, on the Mississippi.
It was there, on October 1, 1811, that for the first time we witness the launching and navigation of the first steamboat.
This gave me the expression of the day: "sailing and steaming", which is a way of designating people who are sometimes attracted to those of the opposite sex, sometimes to those of their own sex.
The fact of borrowing this expression from the navy is not completely harmless since the sailors left for long months at sea, surrounded exclusively by men.
They would change tilt on board, then return to their first love once back in port.
The sail mast as a male symbol, steam as a (caricatural) reference to women
The choice of words can also be explained by the mast of the sail, an eminently masculine symbol, and the feminine vapors which, in a caricature, evoke the hysteria of women.
In Spain the expression "funcionar a gas y electricidad" is preferred: understand "gas and electricity".
In American slang, we talk about ACDC.
Understand: we like both alternating current and direct current.
But the important thing is to avoid the breakdown.
Be that as it may, whether you are sailing or steaming, let's not forget the time of the Roman galleys.
At that time, we took out the oars.