Literal Translation
I honestly don’t know
Actual Meaning
Point-blank actually!
Etymology
‘He asked me point-blank if I wanted to go out with him,’ ‘… he replied point-blank’… To say something ‘point-blank’ is to express oneself bluntly, directly, sometimes brutally. A remark made point-blank can therefore be surprising, even offensive. But where does this expression come from? When you think about it, why combine the words ‘straight’ and ‘out’ in an expression that refers to frankness? As is often the case with surprising expressions like this one, we have to go back in time to understand its meaning.
In Georges Plannelles’ 1001 favourite French expressions, we learn that it dates back to the 17th century and that its origin is linked to the art of war. The expression comes from military vocabulary, more specifically from archers, then artillery. ‘But en blanc’ replaced the old expression ‘de pointe en blanc’, where “pointe” refers to the place from which one points or aims, in the case of a firearm. As for ‘blanc’, it refers to the target, in the case of shooting practice.
In the Middle Ages, the word ‘but’ referred to the target that archers had to hit. It is a distortion of the word “butte”, which comes from ‘butte de tir’ (firing point), the point from which one shoots (still used today by archers). Note that ‘but’ does not refer to the target or goal to be reached, as one might think, but to the starting point for a short-range shot. To shoot ‘de but en blanc’ (straight from the hip) meant to aim straight at the centre, without complex adjustments, at a relatively short distance. The image refers to a direct, quick, straightforward shot, just like a word spoken without preamble.
The expression has survived the centuries and changed its lexical field, moving from military vocabulary into everyday language. As early as the 17th century, it was found in literary texts to refer to a sudden, unprepared speech. It still embodies the idea of directness. Thus, when a colleague ‘announces his departure point-blank’, we emphasise the abrupt and unexpected nature of the revelation. It is no longer an arrow that is shot, but a sentence that hits home. Behind this fixed expression lies an old military metaphor that time has softened without erasing it. This expression is further proof that our language retains the gestures of the past, even in the most innocuous expressions.