Switzerland· medium· informal
envoyer aux pives
“to send to the pinecones”
Meaning
to bluntly tell someone to leave
Explanation
A Swiss French brush-off, the local cousin of envoyer au diable or envoyer promener. Tell someone to get lost and, in the mountains at least, you send them off among the fir cones rather than to the devil.
Example
Il m'a envoyé aux pives quand j'ai proposé de l'aider.
He told me to get lost when I offered to help.
Origin
Pive is an old regional word (Franco-Comtois, Swiss Romand) for a fir cone, traced back to the Latin pipa. Wiktionary's example citation comes from Maurice Métral's 1971 novel Les Racines de la colère, so the phrase was already well established by then.
Source
More like this
- prendre le maquisto go into hiding to escape the authorities
- arranger les bidonsto sort out a dispute, acting as go-between
- il n'y a pas le feu au lacthere is no rush
- aller péter dans les fleursto tell someone to clear off and stop bothering you
- avoir maille à partirto be in an ongoing dispute with someone
- avoir un œuf à peler avec quelqu’unto have a score to settle with someone