In the new show from Europe 1, "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern examines the roots of an expression of everyday life.
Wednesday, he is interested in the origin of "as early as potron-minet", a phrase in which the cat chased the squirrel.
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.
On Wednesday, the host wakes us up early to listen to the roots of the expression "as soon as possible.
"As soon as possible".
Unfortunately nowadays fallen into disuse, this expression was used to say "very early in the morning", "at dawn", in short "at sunrise".
However if we translate it literally into French today, "from potron-minet" means "from the buttocks of the cat" .... A very mysterious meaning, on which it is interesting to lean.
>> Find the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here
The origin of the expression dates back to the 17th century.
But, at the time, we said "from potron-jaquet".
The backgammon then designated the squirrel.
An animal which, like the cat, is capable of resting all day long, after having been very busy at daybreak ... An animal that we therefore saw "from early morning", or "from early morning. twink ".
The cat knowing how to hunt squirrels
But why "potron"?
This word comes from the old French "poistron", whose origin is the Latin "posterio".
It means the behind or the posterior.
The squirrel coming out very early in the morning, it showed itself to the early risers, who could mostly see its bottom.
They therefore saw the backgammon, from the early morning.
As life has become more urban over the centuries, we have become more accustomed to waking up to a cat than a squirrel.
The backgammon has therefore become the backgammon.
Cat owners are also very familiar with this habit of domestic felines of waking them up at dawn ... by showing them their posterior.
In short, their little boy!
Abroad, the expressions which express this "hour when the countryside whitens" (as Victor Hugo wrote) choose other animals.
The Brazilians get up "ao cantar do galo", that is to say "as soon as the rooster crows".
An expression that is also used in French.
The Romanians, it is very beautiful even if there are no animals, wake up "to the pouring of the albs".
In England, we get out of bed "at sparrow's fart", understand "au fart du moineau".
Another form of poetry ...