Learn French Idioms With Me #2/100
Trivia: This common French idiom means “to run low.”
Être au bout de son rouleau: Today, this expression can mean “to have used up all of one’s arguments,” “to be exhausted,” or even “to be broke” (financially speaking). However, it is in the XIV century that the origin of this expression lies.
These were times when books looked quite different: pages glued together in series, forming one great long page, rolled around un role: a baton made of boxwood or ivory.
This word suffered many transformations over the years. For example, for smaller parchments, the French word rollet would be used instead.
Especially in theater, script scrolls were rolled around this small baton — thus, one would say that an actor who obtained a small role had a rollet (meaning few lines).
Another diminutive of the word role that gained a different meaning over the centuries is rouleau. This referred to the paper rolls (wrappers) for coins that are still used today…
