métro, boulot, dodo

French

Alternative forms

• métro-boulot-dodo

Etymology

Literally, “metro, work, sleep”. Abbreviated from the last line of a 1951 poem by Pierre Béarn, collected in Couleurs d’usine (Factory colors):

Au déboulé garçon pointe ton numéro

Pour gagner ainsi le salaire

D’un morne jour utilitaire

Métro, boulot, bistro, mégots, dodo, zéro

Literal translation:

Rush in boy punch your number

Thus to earn the salary

Of a dreary utilitarian day

Metro, work, bistro, cigs, sleep, zero

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.tʁo bu.lo do.do/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Phrase

métro, boulot, dodo

1. metonymy for the everyday routine of a Parisian or more generally urban worker; roughly, same old same old, or rat race

Usage notes

• The expression and the poem from which it is drawn are generally taken as critiques of the monotony of workaday life.

See also

• train-train