English Translation
I don’t know what that’s all about.
what exactly does ‘retourner’ mean here? I don’t see a obvious figurative definition in wiktionary.
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My dictionary has an entry for it:
D impersonal verb
▸ j’aimerais savoir de quoi il retourne
I’d like to know what’s going on
To my mind, the main sense of retourner is turning around something. If you do a complete circle you capture the surrounding area: its environment, that is, everything about it. As in “What’s going on, what’s it all about?”
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English Translation
I don’t know what that’s all about.
I found some detail as well:
retourner
verbe impersonnel
peut-on savoir de quoi il retourne ? = what is it all about?, what exactly is going on?
© Larousse 2014
So then I had to look up “verbe impersonnel“ and found this explanation; Retourner isn’t mentioned here but it was useful for understanding the concept.
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/impersonal-verbs/
Apparently this expression is derived from some card games:
L’origine supposée de cette locution serait : « Selon Claude Duneton, la locution figurée (comprendre, savoir) de quoi il retourne tirerait son origine de certains jeux de cartes, où il est d’usage à la fin de la distribution de retourner une carte – appelée la retourne – de façon qu’on en voie la figure et la couleur qui détermine l’atout : Il retourne de carreau (ou la retourne est de carreau), d’où l’expression savoir de quoi il retourne, passée dans la langue familière avec le sens de « savoir de quoi il est question ».
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Thanks for this addition, it helps to learn the new meaning. I bookmarked the website, it looks like a great resource.
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