Chercher midi à quatorze heures

Literally: To look for noon at two in the afternoon

Example: “La réponse est évidente, inutile de chercher midi à quatorze heures.” — The answer is obvious; there's no need to overcomplicate things.

Origin: 17th century in its current wording, after older versions that searched for noon at eleven o'clock, or simply si loin (so far away). Nobody has ever produced a convincing reason for the number fourteen, or the eleven that came before it — noon at least has the excuse of being the day's one unmistakable, universally agreed moment, which only sharpens the joke of hunting for it at a time it plainly is not. One theory reaches for an 18th-century Italian custom of counting the day's 24 hours from sunset rather than midnight, so that on a twelve-hour dial noon and 2pm could never coincide — but even that is offered as a guess, not an answer.