O.
Reading edition
Œil
Se fourrer le doigt dans l’œil (pop.) = To deceive oneself blindly.
[Sometimes jusqu’au coude is added.]
Il a les yeux au beurre noir (pop.) = He has a couple of black eyes; He has his eyes in mourning.
[Also: Il à les yeux pochés.]
Je ne vois pas cela d’un bon œil = I do not look favourably upon that.
Cela saute aux yeux = That is evident, obvious; It is as clear as noonday.
Je l’ai regardé entre les deux yeux = I looked him straight in the face; I stared at him.
Entrer à l’œil dans un théâtre (fam.) = To get into a theatre on the nod (i.e. gratis).
Avoir le compas dans l’œil = To have a good eye for distances.
Elle a des yeux à la perdition de son âme = Her eyes are so lovely that they will be her ruin.
Vous ne voyez point votre chapeau? Mais il vous crève les yeux! = You do not see your hat? Why, it stares you in the face! (it’s just under your nose).
La lumière me tire les yeux = The light hurts my eyes.
Il ne le fera pas pour vos beaux yeux = He will not do it for you for nothing.
Nous convînmes de cela entre quatre yeux = We agreed to that between ourselves.
Je m’en bats l’œil (pop.) = I don’t care a straw for it.
Il a les yeux battus = He has a tired look about his eyes.
Il a les yeux cernés = He has dark circles round his eyes.
Des yeux à fleur de tête = Goggle eyes. (See Fleur.)
Ouvrez l’œil, et le bon! (fam.) = Look out!
Cela lui a tapé dans l’œil (pop.) = That took his fancy; He was much struck by that.
Œuf
*Donner un œuf pour avoir un bœuf = To give a sprat to catch a herring (or, mackerel).
[Also: Supporter peu pour avoir tout.]
*Faire d’un œuf un bœuf = To make a mountain out of a molehill.
Il tondrait sur un œuf = He would skin a flint. (See Huile and Cheveux.)
Œuvre
*La fin couronne l’œuvre = The end crowns all; All’s well that ends well.
Mettez la main à l’œuvre = Put your shoulder to the wheel.
*À l’œuvre on connaît l’artisan = A carpenter is known by his chips; The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
[La Fontaine, Fables, i. 21, Les frelons et la mouche à miel.]
Oindre
*Oignez vilain, il vous poindra: Poignez vilain, il vous oindra.
[An old saying used by the French nobles during the middle ages, and found in a collection of proverbs of the thirteenth century.—Rab., i, 21. The Duc de Bourbon, in speaking before the États-Généraux in 1484, said: “Je connais le caractère des vilains. S’ils ne sont opprimés, il faut qu’ils oppriment.”
Comp. “Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.” —Aaron Hill, Verses written on a window in Scotland.]
Oiseau
Il a battu les buissons, un autre a pris l’oiseau = He did the work and another had the profit.
[Donatus in his “Life of Virgil” quotes the famous line: “Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves.” Hesiod says of drones: “ἀλλότριον κάματον σφετέρην ἑς γαστερ᾽ ἀμῶνται = Into their own bellies they scrape together the labour of others.” The Talmud says: “One says grace and another eats”; the New Testament: “One soweth, another reapeth.” Henry V. is reported to have said: “Shall I beat the bush and another take the bird?” when it was proposed to him to give up the Duke of Orleans to the Burgundians.]
*À tout oiseau son nid est beau = Home is home, be it ever so homely. (See Chez.)
“Aux petits des oiseaux il donne leur pâture” = He that sends mouths sends meat.
[Racine, Athalie, ii. 7.]
À vue d’oiseau = A bird’s-eye view.
À vol d’oiseau = As the crow flies.
Oisiveté
*“L’oisiveté est la mère de tous les vices” = “For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”—Watts, Divine Songs, xx. (See Fille.)
[Collé, La Partie de Chasse de Henri IV., iii. 1. Also: Négligence mène déchéance = Idle men tempt the devil.]
On
On est un sot = “They-say-so” is half a liar.
[Note that there is no liaison after On here.]
Ongle
Il a de l’esprit jusqu’au bout des ongles = He is witty to the tips of his fingers; He is extremely witty.
Il a bec et ongles = He will fight with beak and claw, tooth and nail.
Onguent
*Dans les petites boîtes les bons onguents = Small parcels hold fine wares. (See Aune.)
Opiner
Il opine du bonnet = He agrees with the previous speakers without saying a word.
[From the custom of judges who agreed with the decision of a brother judge, taking off their caps and saying nothing. It is also said of a subordinate who always agrees with his superior.]
Oreille
Il se fera tirer l’oreille = He will require pressing.
Il se retira l’oreille basse = He went away crestfallen.
J’ai les oreilles rebattues de cela = I am tired of hearing that.
Il dort sur les deux oreilles = (lit.) He sleeps soundly; (fig.) His mind is quite easy.
Il n’écoute que d’une oreille = He pays very little attention to what is being said.
Ne venez pas ainsi me corner aux oreilles = Do not come and din it into my ears in that way.
Il fait la sourde oreille = He turns a deaf ear; He pretends not to hear.
Je n’entends pas de cette oreille-là = I will not listen to that.
Par dessus les oreilles = Over head and ears.
Autant lui en pend à l’oreille = He may expect the same (something unpleasant). (Compare Nez.)
Les oreilles ont dû vous corner (tinter) = Your ears must have burned.
Je lui frotterai les oreilles = I will twist his tail for him.
Orfèvre
*“Vous êtes orfèvre, Monsieur Josse!” = That is a bit of special pleading; That is not disinterested advice; There’s nothing like leather!
[Molière, L’Amour Médecin, i. 1. This quotation refers to Sganarelle’s daughter who suffers from an incurable lowness of spirits. All his neighbours give him advice as to how to cure her; among them, Monsieur Josse, a jeweller, suggests that a fine necklace of diamonds or rubies would undoubtedly cure her. The father, distracted though he be, is not so far gone as not to see through this remark, and he replies in the words that have since become proverbial.]
Orgueil
*Il n’est orgueil que de sot enrichi = Set a beggar on horseback, he’ll ride to the devil.
Orme
*Attendez-moi sous l’orme = You may wait for me till doomsday.
Ortie
Rabelais jeta le froc aux orties = Rabelais was an unfrocked priest.
Ôter
Ôte-toi de là que je m’y mette = You get out and let me get in.
[Origin unknown; probably le Vicomte de Ségur first used it. Comp. Sancho Panza, “Imitando al juego de los muchachos que dicen ‘Salta tu y dámela tu’ doy un salto del gobierno.”]
Oublier
Oublions le passé = Let bygones be bygones.
Ours
C’est un ours mal léché = He is an ill-licked cub; He is an ill-bred [or, ill-shapen] fellow.
[La Fontaine, Fables, xi. 7.]
C’est le pavé de l’ours = Save me from my friends.
[“Rien n’est si dangereux qu’un ignorant ami Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.” La Fontaine, Fables, viii. 10.
An old gardener, feeling lonely, had adopted a bear as a companion. One day, when his master was asleep, he sees a fly on his face; he tries to drive it away, but it declines to move, so he takes up a huge paving-stone and kills the fly—and his master too.]
Ouvrier
*Mauvais ouvrier n’a jamais bons outils = A bad workman always blames his tools.
Ouvrir
Il traduit à livre ouvert = He translates at sight.