{"id":6989,"date":"2012-05-12T10:35:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-12T10:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2012-05-12T10:35:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-12T10:35:20","slug":"without-one-red-halfpenny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=6989","title":{"rendered":"Without one red halfpenny"},"content":{"rendered":"

When putting together this week’s French words and expressions<\/a> from the French Conversation Group<\/a> today, I discovered some interesting French and Welsh equivalents of ‘(to be) broke’.<\/p>\n

In French the equivalent of broke (penniless) is fauch\u00e9<\/em> or if you’re really broke fauch\u00e9 comme les bl\u00e9s<\/em> (broke like wheat). To be broke is \u00eatre fauch\u00e9<\/em> and to go broke is faire faillite<\/em>. Synonyms for fauch\u00e9<\/em> include: <\/p>\n

– abattu = downcast
\n– besogneux = hard-working
\n– chip\u00e9 = pinched
\n– coup\u00e9 = cut
\n– d\u00e9muni = destitute
\n– d\u00e9sargent\u00e9 = impoverished
\n– mis\u00e9rable = miserable
\n– pauvre = poor
\n– ruin\u00e9 = ruined
\n– tondu = chopped \/ shorn
\n– vol\u00e9 = robbed<\/p>\n

In Welsh there are quite a few different ways to say that you’re penniless:<\/p>\n

– heb yr un geiniog = ‘without a single penny’
\n– heb yr un ddimai goch y delyn = ‘without a single red halfpenny of the harp’
\n– heb gragen i ymgrafu = ‘without a shell to rub’
\n– heb yr un ffado = ‘without a ?’
\n– heb yr un ffaden beni = ‘without a ?’<\/p>\n

There are also quite a few ways to express the same meaning in English, including:<\/p>\n

– broke \/ stony-broke \/ flat broke
\n– skint
\n– bankrupt
\n– bust
\n– cleaned out
\n– without a penny to one’s name \/ a red cent
\n– on one’s uppers
\n– penniless
\n– stony-broke
\n– strapped for cash
\n– without two pennies\/cents to rub together
\n– boracic \/ brassic = boracic lint* = skint (rhyming slang) – I knew that word boracic meant penniless, but never realised it was rhyming slang until now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

* According to Wikipedia<\/a>, “Boracic lint was a type of medical dressing made from surgical lint that was soaked in a hot, saturated solution of boracic acid and glycerine and then left to dry. It has been in use since at least the 19th century, but is now less commonly used.”<\/p>\n

Sources: Reverso<\/a>, L’Internaute<\/a>, Geiriadur yr Academi<\/a>, Wikitionary<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Do you use any of these, or do you have other expressions for being skint?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When putting together this week’s French words and expressions from the French Conversation Group today, I discovered some interesting French and Welsh equivalents of ‘(to be) broke’. In French the equivalent of broke (penniless) is fauch\u00e9 or if you’re really broke fauch\u00e9 comme les bl\u00e9s (broke like wheat). To be broke is \u00eatre fauch\u00e9 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,111,127,10,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-french","category-irish","category-language","category-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989","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=6989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}