Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.

What is the capital of Tunisia?

Please type your username.

Please type your E-Mail.

Please choose the appropriate section so the question can be searched easily.

Please choose suitable Keywords Ex: question, poll.

Type the description thoroughly and in details.

What is the capital of Tunisia?

Le diable au corps

The full turn is: “avoir le diable au corps”. For example, il a le diable au corps.

Signification : Déployer une énergie, une activité intense, une
vivacité surhumaine. Peut qualifier quelqu’un qui a des valeurs
amorales.

Origine : Expression française du XIVème siècle qui puise ses origines
dans les croyances populaires de l’époque. En effet, depuis toujours,
les gens ont accordé au diable des pouvoirs extraordinaires. De ce
fait si ce demon tendait à s’emparer du corps humain, celui-ci se
remplirait d’une vivacité surnaturelle. Il est à remarquer qu’au début
du XXème siècle, au cours des années 1920 appelées années folles,
avoir le diable au corps prend une connotation érotique en assimilant
le corps à la chair et le diable au désir. De ce fait, cette
expression française tend à prendre plusieurs insinuations en fonction
de son intonation: Admirative pour la personne vivace, sévère envers
la turbulence d’un enfant et contenant de la désapprobation envers
l’adultère.

http://www.expressions-francaises.fr/expressions-a/1108-avoir-le-diable-au-corps.html

Translation:

Meaning: Deploy energy, intense activity, superhuman vivacity. Can qualify someone who has amoral values.
Origin: French expression of the XIVth century which draws its origins from the popular beliefs of the time. In fact, people have always granted extraordinary powers to the devil. Therefore if this demon tended to seize the human body, it would be filled with a supernatural vivacity. It should be noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, during the 1920s called the Roaring Twenties, having the devil in the body took on an erotic connotation by assimilating the body to the flesh and the devil to desire. Therefore, this French expression tends to take several innuendos according to its intonation: Admirative for the perennial person, severe towards the turbulence of a child and containing disapproval towards adultery.

See also here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/avoir_le_diable_au_corps (in English).

Here: https://www.modele-lettre-gratuit.com/expressions-francaises/avoir-le-diable-au-corps.html (in French).

And here: https://www.languefrancaise.net/Bob/36468 (in French).

DeepL may be useful for the translation: https://www.deepl.com/fr/translator. You can find in the French articles several examples of usage taken from the literature.

So, to distinguish it, the term for the devil in flesh and blood could be “le diable en chair et en os” (Thanks Gregorycrene).

 

Leave a comment

What is the capital of Tunisia?