In the Europe 1 program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern examines the roots of an expression of everyday life.
This Monday, he is interested in the expression "Sort on the shutter", an expression which one uses when one chooses carefully and which refers to an extremely light fabric.
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 "Sort on the shutter", which one uses to evoke a meticulous selection, in particular for a private event.
When you are looking for people on your phone or the program
Historically yours is
looking for a specialist in the Knight of Eon or a professional in the Holy Roman Empire, we draw up a selection of names, of people who hold our attention with care.
We then say that we "handpick".
>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern every day from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here
Choose carefully
The expression has nothing to do with your window pane.
In the Middle Ages, when we spoke of a shutter or even of a "veil" with a "T": we spoke of a small veil, an extremely fine and light fabric, and it was said that with a little wind it could "flutter" .
This cloth could even be used to make sieves.
In the 15th century, the shutter was no longer a fabric but a wooden plate which had exactly the same use but rather for beans and peas.
In 1532, Rabelais had the genius, in his
Pantagruel
, to transpose the expression of chickpeas to people, he spoke of "chosen, chosen and sorted as beautiful peas on the shutter".
Today, in England, we say "to seperate the wheat from the chaff" which means: "to separate the grains from the straw".
In Spain, "separar el gra de la palla" means "to separate the grain from the straw".
In Brazil, we prefer the expression "escolher a dedo", understand "to sort with the finger".
Finally, in Romania, we say "sort by the eyebrow".