DiotimosReading Desk

Speech

Sneezing into the executioner’s basket

éternuer dans le panier à Samson

The threat grotesquely euphemises decapitation as sneezing into the basket that receives a severed head.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Meaning

Phrase.

The threat grotesquely euphemises decapitation as sneezing into the basket that receives a severed head. A political disagreement in the café is thereby converted into pleasure imagined at an opponent’s execution. The source’s spelling Samson is preserved in the supplied translation; the lexicon should neither silently normalise it nor identify the expression as a literal sneeze.

Places to read

  1. Chapter XXI, paragraph 9Frenchéternuer dans le panier à Samson: sneeze into Samson’s basket. The moustached patriot uses the euphemism as a threat against the critic of Hanriot.