French expression: Jeter la pierre

Comments

September 5, 2008 at 7:58 am

(1) Vanessa S. says:

C’est un peu comme l’expression anglaise “to throw the book at someone.”

September 5, 2008 at 8:56 am

(2) Christopher Bowring says:

“Let he…” is of course bad English. It should be “let him…”.

September 5, 2008 at 10:55 am

(3) Ron says:

Rock on!

September 5, 2008 at 1:04 pm

(4) Jean jacques says:

Christopher: first of all this is a french blog so english doesn’t really matter here. In the bible it goes “let he that..” it’s probably old english i suppose. Back to French you are spot on. They say sometimes “Avant de jeter la pierre a quelqu’un il faut se regarder dans le mirroir” meaning before you criticize look at yourself first.

September 5, 2008 at 2:31 pm

(5) Sonia says:

I grew up hearing, “Et toi, tu te vois jeter la pierre?” meaning, “And you, you find yourself without sin?” (literal translation: “And you, you see yourself throwing the stone?”) in which the conversation was between a priest and members of the congregation (some strict conservatives, some more liberal in their application of the bible rules). It was used to diffuse tension between the two groups who disagreed strongly on some philosophical point.

September 5, 2008 at 2:54 pm

(6) Jamilla says:

The original is probably in the Bible, New testament, when Jesus says with regard to the imminent stoning of an immoral woman, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”

September 5, 2008 at 4:00 pm

(7) Roger says:

Jeter la pierre, c’est un peu comme “un jet de pierre”. Je connais une personne dont j’aimerais jeter la pierre! Et vous?

September 7, 2008 at 4:00 am

(8) Jos says:

Aujourd’hui les journaux ont jeté la pierre sur Raymond Domenech (the coach of the French football team, after France lost 1-3 to Austria at the start of the World Cup qualifiers)…

September 9, 2008 at 5:57 am

(9) Joe says:

We too in our language (Maltese) have this expression. But it means as it originally did in the Bible: criticize someone as much as you want, but before you do make sure you have a clean slate.

“Elle ne comprends pas - ne lui jette pas la pierre.”
I don’t want to be fussy, but it should be “elle ne comprend pas”—-no “s” on the end.