ne pas faire dans la dentelle

S

Slavianophil

Senior Member
Russian
Please, help me understand the expression "faire dans la dentelle". Here is the context: "La tâche de l’art est de rendre compte de ces contradictions avec des piqures de rappel qui ne font pas toujours dans la dentelle. Mais elles forcent à un retour aux fondamentaux et à des aspirations légitimes enfouies ou réprimées pour cause de « real politik »."
 
    • Hello,
    There has been a previous thread (at least one) on this here. Picking an answer which might serve here: "are not always for the weak-hearted".
     
    As-tu lu la page du dictionnaire de WR (la traduction n'est peut-être pas la plus appropirée au contexte) et les fils de la liste ?

    ne pas faire dans la dentelle (familier), c'est agir sans raffinement, sans délicatesse (source).

    Ici, on propose don't [always] go in for subtleties ; tu trouveras bien d'autres sources.
     
    Je ne suis pas trop d'accord avec vos traductions. Vous y allez un peu fort, en parlant de dentelle. :)

    avec des piqûres de rappel qui ne font pas toujours dans la dentelle : with reminders that tend to be blunt?
     
    mdb said:
    Actually, I would say "not for the faint-hearted" but the meaning's the same I guess...
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    You are right about the phrase (even if it isn't apposite here). I just copied it from the cited thread without thinking properly.
     
    I've read this thread and the other one about "faire dans la dentelle". I saw this expression recently as the caption to a picture of a line of blazing oil-tanker trucks in Syria: "Poutine ne fait pas dans la dentelle !" The inference was that the tankers had been set on fire by a Russian airstrike. In this case, I would suggest (in BE) something like: "Putin certainly doesn't mess about!" However, what interests me more is the origin of this expression: can anyone pse help?
    M
     
    Hello Mikeo38,

    The expression is fairly literal in its origins: to make lace you need to be patient, precise and deft. The figurative expression simply refers to a person or object that does not have that kind of finesse.
     
    Thanks very much indeed for the helpful replies. I don't know how common an expression it is but a French friend (who's lived most of her adult life in GB) told me at lunch the other day that she'd never heard it! Anyway, I've got it and am grateful for the extensions supplied by Itisi.
    Joyeux Noël.
    M
     
    Thanks, Itisi ... Great! - I love those old-fashioned expressions. I was born a young fogey!
    M
     
    Right. Same as "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère", which is often a synonym (like in Putin's example above).
     
    Hmmm... It's quite near, but first of all ne pas lésiner requires a complement: ne pas lésiner sur le sucre (for someone who puts much, too much sugar in his coffee, for instance). I wouldn't say il ne lésine pas alone.

    And this complement is, in 80% of the cases I would say, les moyens. Actually, the set phrase is: ne pas lésiner sur les moyens. So you could say that Poutine ne lésine pas sur les moyens in a very similar meaning. But ne pas lésiner sur has also a broader mening (in the 20% other cases... ;)).
     
    wildan1 said:
    The expression is fairly literal in its origins: to make lace you need to be patient, precise and deft. The figurative expression simply refers to a person or object that does not have that kind of finesse.
    Click to expand...
    Right, all French websites give this expression origin:
    Ne pas faire dans la dentelle
    ain'ttranslationfun? said:
    So "ne pas faire dans la dentelle", when used figuratively, exists only in the negative, right?
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    Most of the time, yes. But you still find the expression with a positive meaning, maybe it's a bit oldfashioned:
    On dit par exemple : "Ta maison de poupée est incroyable ; tu as vraiment fait dans la dentelle".

    Ou : "Toutes les hypothèses possibles - ou presque - ont été envisagées par les auteurs de ce texte, qui ont vraiment fait dans la dentelle".
    Click to expand...
    Faire de la dentelle et ne pas faire de la dentelle (I only know (ne pas) faire dans la dentelle!)
    faire dans la dentelle
     
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