Laurel : nm Le laurel is a tree native to Mediterranean regions, evergreen, lanceolate, shiny and aromatic.
Sheets de laurel are symbolic.
Crown de laurel.
Belted forehead de laurel (laureate).
Figuratively : Laurels of the warrior, of the victor (glory, succès ; winner).
Être charge, covered de laurels.
Picking laurels: resting.
Fall asleep on your laurels: be satisfied with a first success, and no longer act (see below).
Laurel: person seeking to collect laurels, decorations.
The expression: "Fall asleep / rest on your laurels": Be content with a first success.
Laurel is an aromatic shrub from the Mediterranean region whose twigs were used to weave wreaths intended for poets, heroes and victors.
Laurel is an aromatic shrub from the Mediterranean region whose twigs were used to weave wreaths intended for poets, heroes and victors.
This comes from the fact that in ancient Greece this shrub was dedicated to the god Apollo. It represented the immortality acquired by victory, but also the qualities necessary for this victory: wisdom and heroism.
Fall asleep ou rest on its laurels, it is thus, figuratively, to be satisfied with its first successes (and of the laurel wreath which goes implicitly with it) and to stop there the efforts to try to glean new ones.
If this expression exists with this meaning since the middle of the XNUMXth century, in the XNUMXth century, we said to rest in the shade of its laurels to say "to enjoy a rest deserved by brilliant success" (Littré), which did not have the same negative or restrictive connotation as our expression.