{"id":22120,"date":"2022-04-21T13:10:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T13:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22120"},"modified":"2022-04-21T13:14:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T13:14:28","slug":"good-pickaxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22120","title":{"rendered":"Good Pickaxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In French when you make a good guess or choice, you are said to be making <strong>une bonne pioche<\/strong> or literally &#8220;a good pickaxe&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressio.fr\/expressions\/une-bonne-pioche\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/marcwathieu\/8528257532\/in\/photolist-dZBxQY-2jzXAiS-nda67i-83zxqq-5w6EkR-2jA8N5k-nxsBJb-RKn3Nw-nda61B-QsRyXP-dSFApx-982NUF-21fAq-2iupc27-2iuk9Qs-6vFFdT-6odcwc-hsV7s4-6mbPTs-bSc3rD-25N9hLw-o8XFBm-5VSMTc-XRrSyH-5xYEtQ-bqEeCW-5xYGho-nhsn3V-2mpkLvd-Gh3z2F-c2co5o-fYKPnY-b39Dg2-LJRRY1-KQK3sS-8AmiZ5-cgSnS1-p8AT19-payS4h-6RAoag-NGzPHA-PNH4b6-8j9Zo8-5HEfCV-hp5WN9-jzGYLZ-dQjufq-2iuohx4-4KiHSD-7iVnDC\" title=\"Claes Oldenburg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8094\/8528257532_e6057ea71d_z.jpg\" alt=\"Claes Oldenburg\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>pioche<\/strong> [pj\u0254\u0283] means pickaxe, and also a stock or pile of undealt cards in a card game, and chance or luck. It comes from <strong>pic<\/strong> (woodpecker, pick), from the Vulgar Latin <em>*piccus<\/em> (sharp point, peak, spike, pike), from the Latin <em>p\u012bcus<\/em> (woodpecker, griffin), from the Proto-Italic <em>*pikos<\/em>, from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*(s)peyk-<\/em> (woodpecker; magpie), or from the Vulgar Latin <em>*p\u012bcca<\/em> (pickaxe, pike), possibly from the Frankish <em>*pikk\u014dn<\/em> (to peck, strike), from the Proto-Germanic <em>*pikk\u014dn\u0105<\/em> (to pick, peck) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/pioche\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of how <strong>pioche<\/strong> and related words are used:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>faire une mauvaise pioche = to pick the wrong card<\/li>\n<li>manche de pioche = pickaxe handle<\/li>\n<li>pioche de jardinage = garden hoe<\/li>\n<li>piocher = to dig up, to take from the pile, to take a card<\/li>\n<li>piocher dans = to dip into<\/li>\n<li>piocher pour qch = to cram for sth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are there any interesting equivalents of this phrase in other languages, or any pickaxe-related phrases?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In French when you make a good guess or choice, you are said to be making une bonne pioche or literally &#8220;a good pickaxe&#8221; [source]. The word pioche [pj\u0254\u0283] means pickaxe, and also a stock or pile of undealt cards in a card game, and chance or luck. It comes from pic (woodpecker, pick), from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,110,111,10,15,44,45,46,216,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-frankish","category-french","category-language","category-latin","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-italic","category-vulgar-latin-sermo-vulgaris","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120","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=22120"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22128,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120\/revisions\/22128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}