Where do wine-based expressions come from?

1) 'Verser un pot-de-vin' - meaning 'pay a bribe'  

Excerpt from "Carol" (2015)

Without doubt the best known and most used today! It means paying a sum of money in exchange for a service rendered illegally. This expression is found in all sectors and is easily understood by everyone. But where does it come from? In reality, it dates back to the Middle Ages and at the time referred to a sum of money given to a third party to pay for a drink or directly for a jug filled with wine. This expression changed over time to take on the more derogatory meaning that we know today.  

2) 'Mettre de l'eau dans son vin' meaning 'putting water in your wine'  

Excerpt from "Le dîner de cons" (1998)

As you probably know, the expression "putting water in your wine" means moderating what you say and calming a situation or reducing your ambitions to more realistic and achievable proportions. In other words, putting water in your wine means acting wisely. Furthermore, this expression comes from the Greek philosophers of Antiquity who at the time watered down their wine to delay getting drunk. A practice coming from Dionysos, the Greek God of Wine. So it just goes to show, that even the gods knew their limits!  

3) 'Être entre deux vins' meaning 'being tipsy'  

Excerpt from "Un gars, une fille" (2001)

If you know the expression "tipping over the edge", you will understand the meaning of the expression "being tipsy" easily. This term means in fact the slight feeling of drunkenness that arises when you drink alcohol. Although its orgins remain unclear, this figure of speech entered into common language at the beginning of the 20th Century as the l'Académie Française entered it into the dictionary in the 1930s.

4) To drink one's wine

Excerpt from the television series Zorro (1957)

Who never finished in bed with the whirling because he had abused the drink too much? If this happens to you again, you can say that you have "wine" or, in other words, that you have fallen asleep in drunkenness! Originally, the term comes from the expression "cuver his anger", synonymous with appeasement and taking a step back. The word anger has been substituted for the word wine, in reference to the rest period necessary for this drink to mature when stored in a tank.

5) When the wine is pulled, you have to drink it!

Excerpt from "Tout ce qui brille" (2010)

A little less common than the four previous expressions, this proverb has been taken over and over again by men and women of letters, including the poet Jean-Antoine de Baïf in 1576 in his collection The same teachings and proverbs. In the true sense, it means drinking wine once it is in the glass. But also understand that when something is done, do not go back. If its origins in terms of chronology remain uncertain, its etymology refers to the verb "to shoot", which is used in wine jargon when one puts the wine in bottle or in carafe.

6) Drink the chalice until the dregs

Excerpt from "Nos Futurs" (2015) 

Having become a little outdated, this metaphor is no less effective since it illustrates the fact of going to the end of an unpleasant experience. Appeared in the seventeenth century, the term refers to a religious ceremony that consisted of drinking wine in a chalice (a very flared cut). At the time, the ritual was to drink the wine (considered the blood of Christ) to the end, so as not to lose a drop of this precious nectar. This implied drinking the liquid deposit with the raspy taste that forms at the bottom of the bottle: the dregs. But the word "chalice" also refers to "god's wrath". To confront them thus seemed to undergo a severe test.