Literal translation
to fart higher than one's backside
Meaning
to be full of oneself, pretentious
Explanation
The image, as crude as the French phrase it almost exactly mirrors, describes an absurd physical impossibility to denounce someone's excessive pretension, someone who thinks themselves more important or capable than they really are. Farting higher than one's own backside implies exceeding one's own anatomical limit, a perfect image of pride overreaching its real means. The construction rests on the verb peta, which in Provençal covers a whole range of meanings around bursting and sharp noise, to burst, to break, to fart, and on the adjective aut, high, elevated, used here in the comparative plus aut que, higher than. The word cuou, familiar and blunt, names the backside without euphemism. The expression belongs to a popular, cheerfully coarse register, used ironically to mock the vanity, arrogance, or airs of someone overstepping their real standing, exactly like its French equivalent.