Tobacco : nm Le tobacco is a plant native to America, tall and with broad leaves, which contains a toxic alkaloid, nicotine.
Pass a / to the tobacco: beat, hit, thrash, (very generally associated with police brutality, with “muscular” interrogations) (see below the origin of this expression).
(The cops beat him up: they hit him hard).
Beatings: Beating, violent sanction, correction; brutality often associated - but not exclusively - with the police (during interrogations or for fun).
To fuck / to give a blow of tobacco: to fight; beating, hitting, kicking, Screaming, uproar; applause; beating.
Weigh a portion of tobacco: beat.
To give oneself / to put on a tobacco: to strike.
To make a splash: to achieve a big success on stage (see below the origin of this expression).
This film was his first tobacco: his first success.
It's the same tobacco: it's the same thing.
It is not the same tobacco: it is quite different.
Snuff shot: danger; difficulties, which does not go by itself; violent action; very bad weather (navigation) (see the origin of this expression below).
Blow of tobacco: decisive effort.
To tell a tobacco story: to deceive.
Give someone tobacco: give them pain.
To be in tobacco: to be in a bad situation.
Tobacco juice: tea.
Tobacco package: pubic hair.
Related article: Tobacco (slang synonyms).
– The expression “to make a splash”: to achieve great success.
The origin of this expression which is attested from 1970 is not certain. It is closer to have the big tobacco, who at the beginning of the XNUMXth century "was much applauded" for a theater comedian. Word tobacco has had many meanings since the beginning of the XNUMXth century. We find a part of it in the locutions to beat up ("to beat up"), a tobacco shot (a sudden storm that roughs up a boat at sea).
If the etymology is indeed there, then it is the sound of rolling thunder (that of the blow of tobacco), could be compared to the round of applause received by someone who makes a tobacco. We can also think of the blows given with the foot to accompany the applause and make as much noise as possible to show the high appreciation we had of the piece. There is also the version faire tout un tabac, which means to make a big deal out of it. But this is another story…
– The expression “a blow of tobacco”: a storm at sea, sudden and violent. A brutal event with serious consequences.
As early as the XNUMXth century, in the south of France, verbs such as beat up ou tabustar, which meant to “throw” or “shake, molest.” the word "tobacco" which should have been tobacco, but which was quickly crossed with tobacco (to chew or smoke), comes from these verbs to designate one or more blows. Moreover, in the XNUMXth century, giving tobacco meant “to fight”. it was at the beginning of the XNUMXth century that the expression “coup de tabac” appeared among sailors. The association of "snuff" is a reinforcement intended to emphasize the violence of the feared event. It was towards the end of the same century that the expression “to beat up” (see below) appeared, with the same origin.
By extension, "the blow of tobacco" used outside the navy sometimes designates a sudden event likely to have significant consequences.
– The expression “to beat up”: to beat up.
Although this expression only dates from the last quarter of the XNUMXth century, its origin goes back to the radical tabb which expresses the idea of hitting and which is found from the XNUMXth century in the dialects of the south of France, in Provence and in Occitania or from the XNUMXth century in several verbs including tabust which meant "to beat" or "to strike".
It is with this radical that a tobacco slang appeared (it would give the verb beat up at the beginning of the XNUMXth century), quickly replaced by the homophone tobacco by crossing with the name of the herb à Nicot, a word which at the very beginning of the XNUMXth century designated a "volley of blows ". Which then suffices to explain the use of this tobaccothere with passing in the sense of “subjecting to the action of”, a role that rolling or chewing tobacco would have had difficulty fulfilling.