Pages

13 October 2014

Je Suis timbré and I Am Going Postal

go postal To lash out violently and at random, often in a blind rage. Term taken from the 1990's incidents of workplace violence involving US Postal System workers. I was so angry at work with the new workload, I was afraid I'd go postal.
(Taken from Urban Dictionary. More information about this term here.)

I was amazed when I discovered this meaning in English. I don't think we have a similar expression in my language (or, at least, I can't recall it). But do you know how to say stamp in French? It is timbre. And être timbré means 'to be a bit crazy'. Do you know any other expression like these?

Christophe (France) maybe is also a bit timbré (nothing to do with the fact that he has a mail art project about teeth). He sent this funny comic: 

-Qui est ce qui vous amène? Déshabillez-vous!
-Je vous. Vous avez attrappé une bonne mailartite... rien de grave! 
Juste un peu timbré. Prenez un cachet per timbre...

In case you don't read French: t is about a patient who went to the the postologist (postologue). The doctor examines him and discover that he has mailartitis (mailartite). Fortunately for us all, this is nothing serious... We just need to take a stamp an envelope :-)


7 comments:

  1. I agree: great!!!! I love comics, and especially comics concerning mail :-)

    Concerning expressions, here in NL I've never heard bad words about post.
    There is a saying 'iemand carte blanche geven' = 'to give someone carte blanche' (we use the French words :-) which means something like 'to allow someone to do it his/her own way'. Very positive:-)

    Expressions about madness: for instance 'as mad as a door' (zo gek als een deur), but that usually doesn't concern postal things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We also use the expression with "carta blanca".

      By the way... Mad as a door? Why doors are mad?!?

      Delete
  2. I like some of the British phrases for things: "Mad as a box of frogs" -"thick as two planks" (why two? why not just ONE plank?) xoxox

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess two planks are thicker than just one plank. But I wonder if a box of frogs is madder than a door... :P

      Delete

Thank you for coming. All your comments make me extremely happy.