Découvrir le pot aux roses


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Informal French Expression

Meaning	to find out a secret, uncover a plot
Literally	to discover the pot of roses
Register	informal
Pronunciation		[day koo vreer leu po to roz]
IPA		[de ku vʁiʁ lə po to roz]

Usage notes: The rose as a symbol of a secret dates back to Greek mythology, when Aphrodite gave her son a rose, and Eros entrusted it to Harpocrates, the God of silence. Romans decorated their banquet rooms and party halls with roses, to remind attendees that everything that happened there was sub rosa, literally "under the rose," meaning "in secret."

So the idiomatic French expression découvrir le pot aux roses means to find out a secret:, or perhaps – given that a pot of roses has multiple flowers – many secrets.

Par exemple…

Ce n’était pas facile, mais j’ai enfin découvert le pot aux roses.

It wasn’t easy, but I finally found out the secret.

Variation: dévoiler le pot aux roses

Misspelling / Holorime: le poteau rose (literally, “the pink pillar”)