Some foreign idioms involving color have been adopted whole into English. A case in point: French bête noire. Literally, it means “black beast,” and it’s used figuratively now in English to mean anything particularly disliked or avoided. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Black Beast Idiom”
More than a few of these international color idioms have made their way into English basically intact.
For example, the French bete noire, right?
Right.
Dark beast.
The dark beast.
We use that in English, in the French phrase, to mean the thing that is your kryptonite.
Yeah, yeah.
The thing that’s most likely to do you in.
Right.
Right. That’s a good way to put it. You’re kryptonite.
I love this list of color idioms. We’ll share the whole thing online.
You can find it at waywordradio.org.
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