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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: raclure de bidet

Today's expression is particularly filthy and oh so French. Find out what 'raclure de bidet' means, and when you might need to deploy this nuclear option of an insult.

Published: 7 June 2019 16:03 CEST

French Expression of the Day: raclure de bidet

Photo: Depositphotos

Why do I need to know raclure de bidet?

We might be overstating if we said you need to know this, but it's always fun to know creative insults in a foreign language… and this one demonstrates a certain Gallic flair.

So, what does it mean?

Literally the expression means 'bidet scum' which is of course disgusting, but if you're fed up of your run of the mill insults, such as putain and connard, it might be just the ticket. The equivalent insult in English is probably 'douche bag'.

Clearly no one wants to be described as 'bidet scum' so it's sure to be an effective way of getting your point across, and on top of that the reference to a bidet means that you're demonstrating an understanding of the French way of life at the same time! What could be better?

So, if you'd like an inventive way to put someone in their place then you might want to crack out: T'es une raclure de bidet. – 'You bidet scum.'

Hopefully, it goes without saying that this is not an insult to bring out in front of your boss… or granny.

Origins

There is some debate over where the expression comes from but many people clam they first heard it in cult French film Les Trois Frères released in 1995.

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French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

Why do I need to know jours ouvrés?

Because you need an accurate time estimate.

What does it mean?

As most French learners will know, jours means days, while in this context ouvrés means ‘working’. Therefore jours ouvrés – roughly pronounced jzoor-ouv-ray – means ‘working days’. You may also see jours ouvrables, which means the same thing.

You’re most likely to come across this in the context of estimates on how long things will take – for example a delivery or the processing of an official task or perhaps the results for a test or exam.

And this is where the calendar comes in – ‘working days’ doesn’t include the weekends, but also excluded are public holidays, of which France has quite a lot. So an estimate for livraison dans les cinq jours ouvrés – might actually take almost two weeks to reach you, if there are weekend days and public holidays in between.

Days on either side of public holidays (known as ‘pont‘ days) are technically working days, but don’t be too surprised if things don’t happen on these days either.

Although ouvrés looks similar to ouvrir (to open) the root of the work is actually ouvrer – an archaic verb meaning to work or to labour.

This word was gradually supplanted by travailler in around the 16th century, but some derivatives of it are still used – most commonly ouvrier (or ouvrière for women) which means a worker – it can be used for all types of salaried workers, but is more commonly used for people who do manual labour or work with their hands.

It’s often used in a political sense too – one of France’s leftist political parties is Lutte ouvrière, which translates as Worker’s struggle.

Use it like this

La livraison est estimée à trois jours ouvrés – Delivery is estimated within three working days

Les résultats seront communiqués sous 48 hours (jours ouvrés) – the results will be sent within 48 hours (on working days)

Not to be confused with

If you want to talk about ‘open days’ – days when institutions including schools, the military or artists workshops open up to the public – in France these are known as portes ouvertes (literally ‘open doors’).

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