In "Historically yours" on Europe 1, Stéphane Bern looks every day at the roots of an expression or a phrase of everyday life.

On the occasion of November 11, the host wonders why the soldiers who fought in the trenches in 1914-1918 are called "the Hairy".

On November 11, Stéphane Bern, who offers every day in 

Historically yours

 with Matthieu Noël to discover an expression that we use every day without really knowing its origin, looks at the term "Hairy ".

This nickname is associated with French soldiers who fought during World War I, especially during the Battle of the Marne.

However, and contrary to popular belief, the term has little to do with their hairiness.

"It has long been said that 'the Hairy' of the First World War were nicknamed so because they were deprived of razors, and of all that took part in the hygiene in a general way. But know that between 1914 and 1918, no one called these soldiers 'les Poilus'. They nicknamed themselves 'the men'. A 'hairy' at the time, and even long before, meant a courageous man. Molière, in

Les Précieuses Ridicules, 

uses the 'expression' to be a three-haired brave '.

>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here

"He's the man with the hair in the right place"

In a more warlike context, the explanation can be read in the book

L'Argot de la Guerre, 

by Albert Dauzat.

'Before being the soldier of the Marne, the Poilu is the grumpy Austerlitz, it is not the man with the uncultivated beard, who does not have time to shave, it would be too picturesque, c 'is much better: it is the man with the hair in the right place, not in the hand!'

If, at the start of the Great War, the French fighters were able to let go of their hairiness, the arrival of the first gases forced the soldiers to shave for the masks to be effective.

Hairy or not, today let us have a thoughtful and respectful thought for these fighters as well as for Lazare Ponticelli, who was the last of them, who died in 2008 at the age of 110 years.

A 'Hairy' from a family of Italian immigrant workers.

A nice symbol. "