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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Enfariner

The French language is so detailed it even has a word for throwing flour over someone.

Published: 14 June 2021 15:17 CEST

French word of the Day: Enfariner

Why do I need to know Enfariner?

Because it seems to happen a lot lately, especially to politicians.

What does it mean?

Enfariner comes from the French la farine – flour – and it means sprinkling flour or white powder over something.

It can be used when you cook but also when you apply too much make-up powder on your face.

More recently, it was used a lot to describe politicians who had flour thrown over them.

This weekend, far left presidential candidate for 2022 Jean-Luc Mélenchon had flour thrown in his face as he was talking to reporters during a march against extreme right-wing ideas.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon enfariné pendant la manifestation dite «des libertés» à Paris pic.twitter.com/N9j8t5FoPp

— CNEWS (@CNEWS) June 12, 2021

Former environment minister François de Rugy was also enfariné last Friday while he was campaigning for the regional elections in Nantes in western France.

But enfariner also has a different, less literal, meaning. It is derived from Se faire rouler dans la farine, a very typical French expression which means to be fooled.

Use it like this

Je me suis encore fait enfariner ! – I got fooled again!

As-tu bien enfariné le plat avant qu’on verse la pâte dedans ? – Did you sprinkle enough flour in the dish before we pour the mixture in?

Tu t’es encore enfarinée le nez ! – You put too much powder on your face again!

Le politicien s’est fait enfariner le week-end dernier – The politician had flour thrown over him last weekend.

Synonyms

Se faire duper – to be fouled

Saupoudrer de la farine – Sprinkle flour

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8 favourite French Words of the Day

Every weekday The Local publishes a French word or phrase of the day. We try to focus on colloquialisms, slang, sayings (and a bit of swearing) – you know, the type of French you won’t learn in the classroom, but will hear all the time in the street.

This daily habit means we have a very extensive back catalogue – find it here – and we’ve picked out eight of our recent favourites.

Taxe lapin

The literal translation of une taxe lapin – oon-tax la-pahn – is exactly what you would expect – ‘rabbit tax’.

However, this is not a tax on rabbits, or even on rabbit owners. It is in fact a ‘no-show fee’ or charge levied on people who make appointments and don’t turn up.

Fortunately, we showed up with an explanation, here.

Banco

Banco – bain-koh – is essentially the French word for “bingo!”. It might be colloquial, but politicians have been known to use it when indicating that something someone else has said is correct.

There’s more, right here.

Radin

Radin – rah-dahn – is a less-than complimentary French term for a penny-pincher, someone who is or ‘miserly’ with their money.

We, however, are not in the least stingy with our definition.

Crevard

Speaking of words that definitely aren’t complimentary… Crevard – creh-varr – is a colloquial term that can be used to describe someone who looks ill or exhausted. It’s roughly equivalent to telling someone that they ‘look like death warmed up’.

Find out more, here.

À peine

À peine – ah pen – means ‘with or to pain’ or ‘with or to effort’, and therefore makes no sense in English. But in French conversation, it acts as an adverb meaning ‘hardly’, ‘barely’ or ‘scarcely’.

We make sense of it all, here.

T’as dead ça

T’as dead ça – tah dead sah – combines the French verb avoir (to have) with the English word ‘dead’. And it’s a good thing, apparently. Because it refers to ‘killing it’ in the positive sense. If you tell someone t’as dead ça, it’s congratulatory, like ‘great job, you killed it!’

Simple comme bonjour

Simple comme bonjour – sahm-pluh com bohn-jor – translates as ‘simple as hello’.

It describes something that is very easy or quick, the French equivalent to ‘easy as ABC’, or ‘a piece of cake’.

Our explainer is just as straightforward, too.

J’en ai marre

J’en ai marre – roughly pronounced Johnny Marr – means ‘I’m fed up’.

We discuss this charming phrase in more depth here.

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