Literal translation
to look like the puffing angel
Meaning
to have plump, round cheeks
Explanation
This expression means to have plump, round cheeks, and calls up a familiar decorative figure from Provençal religious art. The àngi Boufarèu names the angel depicted blowing, its cheeks puffed to the extreme, a motif found on fountains, facades, or altarpieces where it personifies wind or divine breath. Comparing a face, often a child's, to this puffing angel highlights full, rounded, almost exaggeratedly plump cheeks, in an affectionate image. Boufarèu, meaning puffed or billowing, reinforces this sense of generous roundness tied to breath. The register is familiar and tender, most often used to describe with fondness the chubby face of a baby or young child, more rarely that of a well-fed adult. The traditional pronunciation recorded for Boufarèu, with its marked stress and slightly rolled r, testifies to lively spoken use, rooted in a popular religious imagery that everyone recognises effortlessly across the Provençal landscape, from fountains to Christmas nativity scenes.