petit juif

French

Etymology

From petit (“small”) +‎ juif (“Jew”). Allegedly the expression came from the time when most cloth merchants in France were Jewish, and would regularly hurt their arm on that spot against a bench while measuring fabric by wrapping it around an arm as an 'anthropomorphic' length measure, the aune (compare ell).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pə.ti ʒɥif/
  • Audio (Canada):(file)

Noun

petit juif m (plural petits juifs)

  1. funny bone

References

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