Literal Translation
To be at the end of the roll
Actual Meaning
To be exhausted, spent
Etymology
This idiom dates back to when books were rolls of sheets stuck end-to-end, wrapped in parchment to preserve them. These books were called ‘rôles’, or ‘rollet’ for the smaller ones, which were much quicker to reach the end of. ‘Être au bout de son rollet’ was an expression in the 14th century, the meaning of which morphed in the following century to mean not knowing what to say, what to do with one’s life, or how to survive. ‘Rollet’ mutated to ‘rouleau’, and by the 1800s only the ‘out of resources’ meaning remained. Delightfully, money in that time was kept in rolls, and ‘rouleau’ also came to mean the cylinder on a phonograph, adding the idea out the sound running out at the end of the roll…