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

He explains Friday the link between luck and deception in the expression "have a chance of cuckolding".

Every day, Stéphane Bern offers, in 

Historically yours

 with Matthieu Noël, to discover an expression that we use every day without really knowing its origin.

On Friday, he delves into the strange cause-and-effect relationship that would make the cuckold get lucky.

The astonishing expression "having a chance of cuckolding" has its origin in the 19th century.

At the time, we can bet that this is no longer the case today, in adultery we found a scandalous situation if, and only if, it was the man who was deceived by his wife.

The husband's infidelity was much less morally condemned.

This is why "cuckold" remains today still masculine in this expression.

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But in what way is a deceived man, if this is a drama, lucky?

The popular common sense of the 19th century holds that one cannot be more overwhelmed than being cuckolded, and that suddenly, one becomes inevitably lucky.

Simply put, the Cuckolded Man has hit rock bottom, and so is fortunate enough to only be able to ascend to better things to come.

Why do we say lucky? 

In the same idea, we say "unhappy in the game, happy in love".

It is also said to "have a cuckold's vein", because the vein is, in geology, the place where precious metals were found in the earth.

Lucky the one who found her, and thus became "lucky".

The term "cuckold" would also come from the cuckoo bird, which as everyone knows is not of exemplary fidelity.

In England we say, to signify someone's luck, "to be jammy", meaning "to be covered in jam".

I don't see where the luck is in that, unless you like to taste it directly on your skin.

In Brazil we say "nascido de cu virado pra lua", or "to be born with your ass turned towards the moon".

Let's end this lucky round the world trip with the joke of Belgian author Gaetan Faucer: "The ambidextrous who has two left hands is really unlucky".