Enculer les mouches
Meaning: To split hairs; to fuss over trivial detail. Vulgar.
Language: French
Literally: To sodomize flies
Category: Animals
Origin: First half of the 20th century, and exactly as coarse as it looks. The point is scale: performing the act named on something the size of a fly would demand an impossible fineness of execution, so an enculeur de mouches — politely a sodomiseur de diptères — is a person whose eye for detail has gone well past the point of any use. It sits alongside pinailler, which means the same without the anatomy. The date is hard to fix; the usual citation is 1949, though tormenting flies for amusement is a much older idea — Victor Hugo has a character in César Birotteau (1837) killing flies alone at home for his own entertainment, as the emperor Domitian was said to.
More idioms — Animals
- Laisser pisser le mérinos — To let things take their course; to wait it out.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Da steppt der Bär — It's going to be a great party.
More French idioms
- Être dans la mouise / Être dans la panade / Être dans la purée — To be broke and in real trouble.
- Faire le mariole — To show off; to play the smart aleck.
- Fumer la moquette — To be talking obvious nonsense; to be off one's head.
- Rouler des mécaniques — To swagger; to throw one's weight around.
- Sauver les meubles — To salvage what matters from a disaster.
- Se casser la margoulette — To come a cropper; to take a bad fall.
From our compliments & insults
- Tu as la tête sur les épaules — You're grounded, sensible, and dependable — not easily swept off course.
- Tu as le vent en poupe — Everything is going your way — you're riding a wave of momentum and success.
- Tu es un as — You're brilliant at what you do — the very best.
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