Provençal expression

D'uno óulivo au cuou, ti fa un litro d'òli

Feelings

Literal translation

from one olive at the backside, he makes you a liter of oil

Meaning

he's terrified, a real coward

Explanation

He's very scared, a real coward. Someone afraid clenches their buttocks, a common image, but here it's pushed to imagining that a single olive slipped behind would come out pressed into a liter of oil, the clenching is that strong. From this image comes the word fadòli (literally makes oil), which passed into regional French to mean a coward, before its resemblance to fada shifted its meaning toward someone a bit simple.

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Other expressions on the same theme

que couiounado !what nonsense! (milder than its French equivalent) acò metè fiò is estoumpothat lit the fuse Èstre gounfle/gounfloto feel heavy-hearted, sad, anxious es un Fènis !it's a wonder, something extraordinary lou souleou mi fa cantathe sun puts me in a singing mood Faire de conte/de comte de Mèste Arnaudto make muddled, misleading calculations