Today's expression... explained

Good evening,

To have a name that's a disgrace

Having a name that is very difficult to pronounce and/or remember.

Today, whether you are called Andreszjw Kraszwieskichigawa or Hildegarde von Geschwätzschwarzwaldzahnartz, you are accepted at the hotel without any difficulty.

But in the old days, in the Middle Ages and long after, in those bygone times when police patrol sirens had not yet resounded, when it was impossible to put two liters of super unleaded into your moped (assuming you had even invented one), and when brigands would kick the shrew and strip the beggar, innkeepers were of an extremely suspicious nature.

Once night had fallen, to gain admission to an inn, one had to show one's credentials, that is, first state one's surname. And anyone who did not have a very 'Christian' name had a strong chance of being turned away and having to move on or sleep in the stable.
(Then, once admitted, clothing and the nobility of one’s name mattered for the assignment of the finest or least comfortable rooms)

Given that inns were far less widespread than hotels or motels are today and that the chances of getting a ride to try to get into the next one were very slim, anyone who had a name that would keep them out of the establishment had better have something to keep them well covered for the night.

Marylena

Good evening,

To have a lot on one's plate

To have a lot of work, tasks to complete.

Before the beginning of the 20th century, this expression meant something entirely different, as it meant “having resources for the future, being assured of lacking nothing.”
The image can be explained in the context of a time when bread could be stored for a long time before being eaten, and when having many loaves stacked on their storage boards meant having enough to last for a while.

The fact that the expression has changed in meaning can be explained in two ways.

The end of this long-lasting bread, gradually replaced by the bread we buy every day at the bakery, probably helped.
We could then imagine the raw loaves that the baker first places on a board after shaping them, before putting them in the oven.
If he is at the beginning of his baking process, this man has breads or bread on the board before having fully completed it.

The other explanation comes from Claude Duneton.
It would first go back to a slang expression used by ruffians, “the bread board,” which referred to the courthouse (by allusion to its elevated position, like the boards where bread was stored).
Moreover, in that era of monarchy, “eating the king’s bread” meant being in prison or the galleys (or in the army), since bread was provided free of charge by the State, that is, by the king.
The combination of these two expressions led the hoodlums to assimilate the years of hardship or hard labor gently doled out by the court (in the form of rations) to so many “loaves on the board,” the latter then taking on the meaning of “chores,” where previously they had the meaning of “resources.”

Good evening

Marylena

Hello,

Shooting the ambulance

To crush someone who is in a desperate situation.
To pick on someone who has already been through so much.

The image behind this expression is very explicit: an ambulance usually transports a sick or injured person. So wanting to shoot at the ambulance is certainly not to speed up the passenger’s Getting well, but rather with the intention of finishing them off completely[1].

This expression, widely used in political circles, dates back to the 20th century, as it was coined by Françoise Giroud ().

It is also used in a negative form, such as “don’t shoot the ambulance,” to mean something like “you can clearly see that he is already in a difficult situation, so there is no need to make it any worse.”

Some may say that it can stem from a good intention: wanting to end the suffering of the wounded. But that is very rarely the case.

Marylena