Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre

Expression: Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre

Pronunciation: [ah vwar leu beu ray lar zha(n) du beur]

Meaning: to have one's cake and eat it, too

Literal translation: to have the butter and the money from (selling) the butter

Register: proverb

Notes: The French proverb avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre is easy to understand - you can either keep the butter for yourself, or you can sell the butter, but you can't do both. In other words, you have to make a choice between two mutually exclusive things.

Though it seems to harken back to the days of family-run farms and kids being sent to the marché with a kilo or two of butter to sell, avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre is a fairly recent expression - numerous websites say 1980, but I've yet to find an official source to which to credit this date. Strangely, the proverb isn't even listed in Le Grand Robert (CD-ROM v 2.0, 2005).

Example

   Thierry, fais un choix. Tu ne peux pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre !
   Thierry, make a choice. You can't have your cake and eat it, too!

Variations:
   garder le beurre et l'argent du beurre (to keep the butter...)
   obtenir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (to obtain ...)
   réclamer le beurre et l'argent du beurre (to claim ...)
   vouloir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (to want ...)

Interestingly, in old-fashioned French slang, beurre used to mean "money," kind of like "dough" or "cheddar" in English (perhaps only American English?)


More

• Expressions with avoir
• Most common French phrases