Literal translation
to tear oneself apart with laughter
Meaning
to laugh until one can't breathe
Explanation
This expression means to laugh until one can't breathe, a laugh so intense it becomes almost painful. The verb estrassa carries the concrete sense of tearing, ripping apart, as one tears fabric or an old garment: applied to laughter, it gives the image of a body literally coming apart under uncontrollable hilarity, as though the bursts of laughter ended up splitting the person themselves. This apparent violence in the verb paradoxically serves to describe an extreme pleasure, that of a shared fit of laughter leaving one breathless with an aching stomach. The register is familiar, used in everyday conversation to recount a particularly funny scene or a moment of hilarious closeness among friends or family. The expression joins a series of Provençal phrases that link extreme laughter to an image of bodily rupture, such as bursting one's navel or making oneself a skin of laughter, all built on the same principle of physical exaggeration. The word estrassa also keeps, in other uses, the agricultural sense of clearing land, showing the versatility of this root in the language.