VIEW : nm Small elongated animal with a cylindrical and soft body, without legs.
The worm is in the fruit: the situation can only get worse, deteriorate (when it contains germs of destruction).
Not to be stung by worms (beetles): to be intense, extreme, remarkable in its kind.
A cheese, a wine not stung by worms.
Kill the worm: drink the drop, wine, in the morning; drink a glass of cognac in the morning, from White wine the morning ; drink the first glass of the day, drink a glass ofcalvados or White wine in the morning on an empty stomach (see the origin of this expression below).
To pull the worms out of the nose: to make someone speak on a given subject (see the origin of this expression below).
– The expression “kill the worm”: drink a glass of alcohol on an empty stomach.
It seems that at the time of the appearance of this expression in 1828, the glass of alcohol on an empty stomach, frequently given to one's child when he left for school, had a reputation for very good vermifuge properties. It didn't take much more for adults eager to slurp a little balloon of white early in the morning to use the pretext of getting rid of unwanted guests to justify opening the bottle or reuniting with fellow travelers. drinking at the local booze.
– The expression “pulling the worms out of the nose”: Deftly succeeding in getting someone to talk about a subject that he did not want to discuss or to obtain information that he did not want to divulge.
There are many hypotheses about the origins of this expression, which has been attested since the XNUMXth century.
An explanation that seems appealing would come from a distortion of the Latin verum "the real" We would therefore draw the truth from the nose.
But why of nose ? And why worms in the plural ?
The French linguist, lexicographer and writer Alain Rey (1945-2020) refutes this hypothesis, adding that the English version to worm a secret out of somebody evokes a worm and not the truth.
So to try to confirm this origin, there is a hypothesis that evokes the Romance language where see you meant "true". It would then be likely that see you has been transformed into worms. As for the nose, it would be there by ellipse of a “leading it by the tip of the nose”, or, in other words “leading it as it pleases, thanks to cunning and persuasion until confession”.