Is it Latin or something else?
Could you explain the real meaning of the phrase?
Thanks xoxoxo
2007-08-09 11:26:51 · 13 answers · asked by Alsee 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
My French teacher tells the class that she always laughs when she hears this expression because cul means @$$ and sac means bag and when you put it together, English speaking people call the end of their street an "@$$ bag". lol Obviously something was lost in translation when French words and expressions were borrowed for English. When you're not talking about a street, it means "bottom of the bag".
2007-08-09 17:17:15 · answer #1 · answered by ♥Kay 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cul-de-sac means "bottom of a sack" in French and Catalan. Despite seeming to be a borrowed French phrase, the expression cul-de-sac originated in England during the period when French was spoken by the English aristocracy.
2007-08-09 18:41:15 · answer #2 · answered by clara 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's French, and it means "bottom of the sack". A road that has a cul-de-sac has a rounded end that makes it look like the bottom of a sack. Thus the name.
2007-08-09 18:41:11 · answer #3 · answered by FUNdie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a French word, no longer in use, they use "impasse" for this term, meaning a dead-end road.
Cul de sac in French means, literally, the bag's bottom. There's no way, as you know, of getting out of a bag's bottom but by making marche arrière or reverse.
2007-08-09 18:42:59 · answer #4 · answered by inesmon 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
cul-de-sac literally means bottom of the sack french/catalan
the expression orininated in England
metaphorically means A LINE OF THOUGHT OR ACTION
WHICH LEADS TO NOWHERE
2007-08-09 18:42:59 · answer #5 · answered by wotaclot 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's French, and the original meaning is "bottom of the bag"; the word "cul" - which in French sounds something like "coo" - is actually a slang word; it's strength is rather coarser than "bum" but not as strong as "a*se"
2007-08-10 02:27:22 · answer #6 · answered by GrahamH 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is French for bottom of a bag - curiously the French do not refer to a dead end street as a cul-de-sac. And they do not use the term "en suite" either, they simply say a room with a bath/shower/wc etc. They are examples of us not only borrowing French words, but inventing them for our own language, which I think is so passé.
2007-08-09 18:34:57 · answer #7 · answered by undercover elephant 4 · 3⤊ 3⤋
LHOOQ - Marcel Duchamp's moustached Mona Lisa title comes to mind. Elle a chaud au cul... she has a hot "bottom". Latin?... Quarter, yes, why not!
2007-08-09 18:54:33 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Its french for bottom of the bag.
2007-08-09 18:32:48 · answer #9 · answered by Mel26 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
its french. bottom (literally ***) of a sac. lol
2007-08-09 18:31:14 · answer #10 · answered by the Bruja is back 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋