les affaires sont les affaires

French

Alternative forms

  • les affaires ce sont les affaires

Etymology

Possibly a calque of English business is business (or vice versa). Perhaps popularized by the title of Octave Mirbeau's 1903 play Les affaires sont les affaires, although the phrase had already been used in the mid-19th century by George Sand and Eugène Sue, among others.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /le.z‿a.fɛʁ sɔ̃ le.z‿a.fɛʁ/

Phrase

les affaires sont les affaires

  1. business is business
    • 1833, George Sand, Mattea‎[1]:
      […] en disant toujours qu'il ne se méfiait pas de son gendre, mais en répétant ce vieux proverbe des négocians: Les affaires sont les affaires.
      […] always saying that he did not mistrust his son, yet repeating the old mercantile proverb: Business is business.
    • 1865, Édouard Pailleron, Le second mouvement‎[2]:
      Vous l'avez eu pour rien. Je ne vous blâme pas. Les affaires sont les affaires.
      You got it for nothing. I don't blame you. Business is business.

Descendants

  • → English: business is business (calque)
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