{"id":20891,"date":"2021-04-23T14:40:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T14:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=20891"},"modified":"2021-04-23T14:40:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T14:40:21","slug":"roasting-the-broom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=20891","title":{"rendered":"Roasting the Broom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A interesting French idiom I came across recently is <strong>r\u00f4tir le balai<\/strong>, which literally means &#8220;to roast the broom\/brush&#8221;. Originally it meant to live in poverty &#8211; such poverty that your are reduced to burning your broom to keep warm. Later it came to mean &#8220;to lead a miserable life, or vegetate in mediocrity&#8221; and also &#8220;to live a life of debauchery&#8221; &#8211; usually when referring to a woman [<a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/r%C3%B4tir_le_balai\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/1024\/858454965\/in\/photolist-2iRNKF-2j6a9f2-b6ftTP-5WJmzq-8WX5-kaCTB-8ys8oy-dKyF3K-fJe2p5-42GdNg-5wUv3R-eRd1j8-6tpQQ9-aFBjyi-571B1q-9crzfV-2g6BoaF-4X3s2q-4UCNqc-4LbnEG-2kEGocH-bVG35-6dhY3H-2iWn72w-2bQZSKg-7Wu9tp-zhtuW8-rzBT9-fHWtSM-4E3rwy-eESUnX-2jjVT47-fsqwQn-2kJemv8-EAGfJ4-4C75iJ-4neXTE-5yBLcR-nyhWy6-5JM8Pu-aPuLxz-25UTmGw-ePt4Uo-LFCYF-ePgFi4-ePgEQ6-2kGTvhr-ePt5n5-4PFE7L-6JUXB4\" title=\"Broom\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1390\/858454965_16ea072d03_z.jpg\" alt=\"Broom\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>balai<\/strong> [ba.l\u025b] means broom, broomstick, brush, or blade (of a windscreen wiper), and also is a slang term for years (of age) [<a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/balai\">source<\/a>]. Some words and phrases it appears in include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>manche \u00e0 balai = broomstick, joystick<\/li>\n<li>balai-brosse = long-handled scrubbing brush<\/li>\n<li>balai \u00e0 franges = mop<\/li>\n<li>balai \u00e9ponge = squeezey mop<\/li>\n<li>balai m\u00e9canique = carpet sweeper<\/li>\n<li>coup de balai = sweep, shake-up<\/li>\n<li>donner un coup de balai = to give the floor a sweep, to sweep up<\/li>\n<li>fou comme un balai = very agitated, excited and\/or anxious (&#8220;as crazy as a broom&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>du balai ! = hop it! shoo! push off!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Balai<\/strong> comes from the Old French <em>balain<\/em> (a bundle of broom twigs), from the Gaulish <em>balatno<\/em> (broom (shrub)) from the Proto-Celtic <em>*banatlom<\/em> (broom). Words from the same root include the Breton <strong>balan<\/strong> (broom), the Cornish <strong>banadhel<\/strong> (broom), the Welsh <strong>banadl<\/strong> (broom), the Spanish <strong>b\u00e1lago<\/strong> (straw; Spanish broom (<em>Spartium junceum<\/em>) [<a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/balai\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>broom shrub<\/strong> here is the <strong>common broom<\/strong> or <strong>Scotch broom<\/strong> (<em>Cytisus scoparius<\/em>), a perennial leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe, which can be used to make brooms (for sweeping)  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cytisus_scoparius\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/film_images\/4601789856\/in\/photolist-81DnNq-2iRewfW-2iPw1mk-c1Kz9o-gSdQf-2iPtgPn-2iRNKF-6BShAP-7Pafkb-2j6a9f2-RWo51x-LyRba-b6ftTP-boafE9-5WJmzq-nSQN7M-ajXf4X-oZyMN-7QhSVp-MZV7Z3-2jG1yBd-2vfnmf-af56hg-dKcAdM-2if5WAo-bWEThD-2ex1iHX-4SQhBz-6bmD64-KnfwNd-6CPPYm-bYzgp1-pa44ut-8WX5-kaCTB-2g3ws1p-2kp6L75-8ys8oy-dKyF3K-24SZMRG-fJe2p5-2jEh42W-5FHKFW-42GdNg-5wUv3R-c2AqUb-o7hCU4-drCMCz-48tGWs-3zvXCo\" title=\"Broom\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1367\/4601789856_821a91fe3f_z.jpg\" alt=\"Broom\" width=\"640\" height=\"457\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, the Chinese character \u5987 [\u5a66] (f\u00f9), which means married woman, woman or wife, developed from pictograms of a woman and a broom. Originally the woman was on the right and the broom on the left, but at some point they switched sides <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E5%A9%A6\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Do you know any other broom-related idioms?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A interesting French idiom I came across recently is r\u00f4tir le balai, which literally means &#8220;to roast the broom\/brush&#8221;. Originally it meant to live in poverty &#8211; such poverty that your are reduced to burning your broom to keep warm. Later it came to mean &#8220;to lead a miserable life, or vegetate in mediocrity&#8221; and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,95,97,104,107,111,10,34,43,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breton","category-chinese","category-cornish","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-old-french","category-proto-celtic","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20891"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20898,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20891\/revisions\/20898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}