Every day, in "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern offers to discover the origins of expressions that we use on a daily basis without necessarily knowing where they come from.
Tuesday, the host looks at the origin of "a long time ago", which is used to talk about something from the distant past.
Every day, in
Historically yours
, Stéphane Bern suggests discovering the origins of expressions that we use every day.
Tuesday, the host returns to "a long time ago", a phrase that expresses a distant past and whose source dates back to 19th century Burgundy.
Who has never heard one day, in the mouth of a grandfather, the expression "a long time ago"?
It must be admitted, this formula is not yet back in fashion among our friends the young.
But, who knows, we have often seen fire from a volcano that we thought was too old, as Louis Aragon wrote a long time ago, before it was sung, among others, by Georges Brassens and Barbara.
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"Il ya belle lurette" therefore means "a long time ago", and it is true that a long time ago we no longer use the expression belle lurette.
But what is a lurette?
Well, everyone agrees ... that we know absolutely nothing.
The term “lurette” also exists only in the aforementioned expression.
From "belle heurette" to "belle lurette"
At the end of the 19th century, in the region of Burgundy, we used to say "il ya belle heurette".
Heurette meant "one hour".
As a van is a small truck, while an andouillette is not necessarily a small andouille.
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The first time that we can read the phrase "petite heurette" is in
La revue des 2 mondes
, in 1875, from the pen of the poet André Theuriet.
He writes: "it is not a thrush, the sounds are too energetic. As for the nightingale, it has been a good hour since it no longer sings."
Over time, "belle heurette" simply becomes "a long time ago".
The term also changes meaning with usage, from "a short time ago" to "a long time ago".
Note, to be complete on the expression, that the last work of Jacques Offenbach is an unfinished opéra-comique in 3 acts entitled "Belle lurette".
And that in Romania, we prefer to say "since my grandmother was a young girl".
Which shows the time spent better than "a long time ago".