The meaning
> What is good for one person may be bad for another; what is pleasant to one person may be unpleasant to another. We are all different; every one of us is a unique individual. So, ‘one size fits all’ never works!
You can also hear “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.
Etymology
> This expression originates in antiquity. Whether the Roman poet and philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus (known as Lucretius) coined the expression in the first century BC, or merely repeated it, it is the oldest known reference: «quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum» (what is food for one man may be bitter poison to others). The oldest reference known in English is in the autobiography of the English composer Thomas Whythorne (1576).
By the early 17th century the expression is clearly well in use as Jacobean playwright Thomas Middleton writes : «Whereby that old moth-eaten proverb is verified, which says one man’s meate, is another man’s poyson» (1604).
The expression is the central theme in a song – Pay the Devil – sung by Van Morrison (2006).
Wrong translation
> La viande de certains est un poison pour d’autres
Correct French idiom
> Le bonheur des uns fait le malheur des autres.
