Avoir son pain cuit: Huit siècles d'ambiguïté sémantique

Abstract

Figurative idioms are usually thought of as ambiguous because of their literal counterpart, however improbable the latter may be. Nevertheless, some expressions have several figurative meanings, two of which may be antonymic. While the ambiguity is often short-lived, the two antonymic meanings of the Old Frenchavoir son pain cuit coexisted for eight centuries.