Literal translation
he's a limpet
Meaning
he's a clingy sort of person
Explanation
This phrase describes a clingy person who attaches themselves to someone and will not let go. The image rests on a small marine creature, close to a limpet or a leech depending on local usage, which fastens firmly onto a rock or its host and resists every effort to pry it off. The exact Provençal word for this creature does not appear identically in our attested dictionaries, but a very close form is recorded there naming a leech used figuratively, which confirms the field of meaning: a creature that grips on and cannot be pulled away. The expression applies to an overbearing person who follows, who sticks, who does not understand or refuses to understand that one wants to be left alone, whether among friends, family, or neighbors. The register is familiar, used with exasperation tinged with humor, without real hostility. The feminine article shows that the noun used is feminine, regardless of the sex of the person so described.