In the program of Europe 1 "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern looks at the roots of an expression of everyday life.
Monday, he is interested for us in the origin of "having fun", a formula which means "to take pleasure" or "to have pleasure", and whose origins come from the world of piracy.
Stéphane Bern offers 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 roots of the expression "get it right". This formula of pleasure was borrowed from the vocabulary of pirates.
Having fun means having a lot of fun, but this expression does not necessarily fit into a sexual register, even if it is often in this context that it is used.
Its origins, however, have nothing to do with any acrobatic position, and everything to do with the famous unit of measurement: the foot, which is equivalent to 33 cm, approximately.
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Gold at his feet
At the time of piracy, once wealth was robbed, the time came for sharing.
Everyone wanted their share of the booty.
And to distribute it, we began by distributing to each one a small pile of gold the size of a foot.
So, the lucky ones had taken their part, they had got off.
In 1878, a similar expression was used daily: one said "I have my foot" to say "I had my share".
We also find there the idea of having had enough, of having had its account.
The foot is also often used in the vocabulary of love.
It will thus be noted that it is necessary to "find a shoe to suit your feet", before being able to take it together.
Let's finish with a quote from Philippe Geluck, the designer of Le
Chat
: "I had put my shoes on in front of the fireplace, Santa Claus brought me feet".