/avwaʁ yn aʁɛɲe o plafɔ̃/ lit. ‘have a spider on the ceiling’
French idiom, familiar. Someone is a bit crazy, or is acting as if they’ve lost their mind.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Avoir une araignée au plafond
?
Familiar French, the kind of thing you say about a neighbour with odd habits or to a friend whose plan sounds daft. It’s teasing more than cruel. Most often in the present: “il a une araignée au plafond”, or as a question, “tu as une araignée au plafond ?” (have you lost it?).
Also said avoir une araignée dans le plafond, avoir une araignée dans la coloquinte
Avoir une araignée au plafond
in real sentences
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Tu as une araignée au plafond.
You’ve lost your marbles.
Tatoeba, sentence by adlerq, translation by candistyx, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tu as une araignée au plafond ?
Have you gone nuts?
Tatoeba, sentence by Bernie75, translation by minshirui, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Avoir une araignée au plafond
come from?
The ceiling is the top of your skull, and a spider up there means the attic has been left to rot. French Wiktionary’s clearest early examples are from the 1850s: a newspaper from the Orne in 1858 explains that “un tel a une araignée dans le plafond” means a man has gone mad, and Le Figaro uses “une araignée au plafond” in 1860. Littré’s dictionary records the “dans le plafond” form in 1863. Wiktionary also says Parisian prostitutes used the phrase, but gives no source for that.
Mistakes learners make with Avoir une araignée au plafond
Getting the preposition wrong: it’s “au plafond”, not “sur le plafond”. “Dans le plafond” does exist (Littré lists it in 1863), but today it sounds old-fashioned next to “au plafond”.
Other French idioms like Avoir une araignée au plafond
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