J.
Reading edition
Jamais
Au grand jamais = Never, no never.
Jambe
Il court à toutes jambes = He is running as fast as his legs will carry him.
[Compare: à toute bride, à toute vapeur, à toute vitesse.]
Il a pris ses jambes à son cou = He took to his heels.
Il a joué des jambes = He took to flight.
Il a des jambes de quinze ans = He still walks well.
Cela ne lui rend pas la jambe mieux faite! (ironic.) = And a lot of good that will do him!
Cela vous ferait une belle jambe (ironic.) = A fine lot of good that will do you.
Il a les jambes en manche de veste (fam.) = He is bow-legged.
Il le fera par dessous la jambe = He will do it with the greatest ease (or, carelessly).
Il a des fourmis dans les jambes = He is fidgety, restless.
Jaune
Jaune comme un coing = As yellow as a guinea.
Jean
Être gros Jean comme devant = To be no better off than one was before, in spite of all one’s efforts.
[Rabelais, Pantagruel, iv. second prologue, and La Fontaine, Fables, vii. 10.]
Jeter
Il jette son argent par les fenêtres = He plays ducks and drakes with his money.
C’est jeter de l’huile sur le feu = It is adding fuel to the fire (flames).
Jeu
*Jeu qui trop dure ne vaut rien (Charles d’Orléans) = Too much of a good thing is bad.
C’est vieux jeu = That is quite old-fashioned.
Ne me mettez pas en jeu = Do not mix me up in it.
Cela passe le jeu = That is beyond a joke.
*Jeu de mains, jeu de vilains = 1. Horse-play is not gentlemanly. 2. Rough play often ends in tears.
Il fait bonne mine à mauvais jeu = He puts a good face on the matter; He makes the best of a bad job.
*A beau jeu beau retour = One good turn deserves another.
Nous sommes à deux de jeu = We are even; We are a match for each other; Two can play at that game.
Je vous donne beau jeu = (lit.) I give you good cards; (fig.) I give you a good opportunity; I play into your hands.
Jouer gros jeu = (lit.) To play for high stakes; (fig.) To risk very much in an attempt.
Cela n’est pas du jeu = 1. That is not fair, not cricket; You are not playing the game. 2. That was not agreed upon.
Jeune
*Qui jeune n’apprend, rien ne saura = An old dog will learn no tricks. (See Jeunesse.)
Jeunesse
*Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait = If only the young had experience and the old strength; If things were to be done twice, all would be wise.
Ce que poulain prend en jeunesse, il le continue en vieillesse = “’Tis education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” [Pope, Moral Essays, i. 149.]
Youth and white paper take any impression.
[Also: Vieil arbre mal aisé à redresser. Compare the English, “Old dogs are hard to train.” (See Jeune.)
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”—Proverbs xxii. 6.]
Il faut que jeunesse se passe = Boys will be boys.
Joie
Un rabat-joie = A mar-joy; A wet blanket.
Jouer
Il joua de son reste = He played his last card; He was on his last legs.
[Carefully distinguish this from Jouir de son reste = To make the most of one’s remaining time.]
Il joue au plus sûr = He plays a safe game.
Jouer de malheur = To have a run of ill-luck.
Jouer serré = To act cautiously; To leave nothing to chance.
Jour
Ces gens vivent au jour le jour = Those men live from day to day, from hand to mouth.
*À chaque jour suffit sa peine = Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Je suis à jour = I am up to date; I am not behind in my work.
*Tôt ou tard la vérité se fait jour = Sooner or later the truth will come out.
C’est le jour et la nuit = They are as different as chalk and cheese.
Il n’est si long jour qui ne vienne à vêpres = “Be the day weary, be the day long, At length it ringeth to evensong.”
[From a poem by Stephen Hawes, a poet of the reign of Henry VII.
Compare:
“Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.” Macbeth, i. 3.
And: Come day, go day, God brings Sunday.]
A bon jour, bonne œuvre = The better the day, the better the deed.
*Ce n’est pas tous les jours fête = 1. Christmas comes but once a year. 2. One cannot always have “a high old time,” but must work as well. 3. Life is not all beer and skittles.
D’aujourd’hui en huit = This day week.
Il y a aujourd’hui huit jours = This day last week.
En plein jour = In broad daylight.
Il y a quinze ans jour pour jour = It was fifteen years ago to the very day.
Prendre jour = To agree upon a day for an appointment.
Juge
*De fou juge briève (brève) sentence = A fool’s bolt is soon shot.
Juger
Juger sur l’étiquette du sac = To judge by appearances, by the exterior.
Au juger = At a guess.
Jurer
Le vert jure avec le jaune = Green does not match with yellow; Green clashes with yellow.
Jurer comme un templier (charretier, païen) = To swear like a trooper.
Juste
Au plus juste prix = At the lowest price.
Comme de juste = Rightly enough.
[Littré condemns this expression as ungrammatical, giving the correct form as: comme il est juste. It is, however, almost universally used.]
Justice
Passer à pleines voiles à travers les mailles de la justice = To drive a coach-and-four through an Act of Parliament.
[Also: Il est facile de donner une entorse à la loi.]
La justice ne connaît personne = Justice is no respecter of persons.