What does “In two shots of a jar” mean?
“In two strokes of the spoon” suggests a smooth action carried out quickly and without any difficulty.
Originally it would refer to the pot emptied in the blink of an eye using a ladle (pot spoon).
Moreover, in “The bouquet of imaged expressions”, Claude Duneton mentions a quote from a book by Antoine Sylvere.
The latter was a legionnaire in Africa in 1905 and 1906 and the following extract refers to this period: “There is not one of us who would have sold his clothes twice without going to Oran and taking them for at least seven years in two strokes of the teaspoon, continued Van Lancker. This sentence is taken from the book “The Legionnaire Flutsch”.
We can therefore say that the expression was already known and used at the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, it is found in other works from the beginning of the century. For example, it appears in “Archives de neurologie” (1908): “With two strokes of a spoon, I remove it from there”.
Currently, the expression insinuates that the action was carried out with ease and undoubtedly a certain luck.
Do not we say: “to have had a big shot”!
