In the Europe 1 program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern examines the roots of an expression of everyday life.
Monday, he is interested for us in a phrase that we use as a reflex, but without fully understanding its meaning, when someone around us sneezes: "to your wishes!".
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.
Monday, the host explains to us the origin of a phrase that we use as a reflex, "to your wishes".
"Sneeze!", "To your wishes".
The exchange is so banal that we rarely ask ourselves the question of its meaning.
However, by saying "to your wishes", we wish much more than a speedy recovery to the one who has just sneezed.
In ancient times, sneezing was seldom good news.
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To ward off fate and disease, we relied on the gods.
We used to say "May Jupiter keep you".
A polytheistic version which then became "God bless you".
With this expression, a belief has long endured: it was believed that a sneeze was able to expel the soul from the body.
So we put our hand in front of his mouth to prevent it.
But also to prevent a demon from entering by the same way.
In Ancient Greece, it was also believed that if you sneezed, it was because a divine spirit was passing nearby.
Saying "To your wishes" was then a polite way of greeting him.
Sneezing, a symptom of the plague
In the Middle Ages, one of the first symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing.
Between 1347 and 1352, 50% of the European population was decimated by this scourge.
We understand that the habit was quickly acquired to ward off fate as best as possible by saying "To your wishes", the wish not to get sick or to get well quickly.
We find this expression even in the witticisms of Léon Zitrone.
The TV presenter said “popularity is sneezing on the screen and receiving hundreds of letters the next day where it says“ Wish you all. ”On TV or not, we will not forget in these epidemic time to sneeze ... into his elbow.