Faire un pataquès

Literally: To make a pataquès

Example: “Il a fait tout un pataquès parce que son café était tiède.” — He made a whole song and dance about his coffee being lukewarm.

English equivalent: To make a song and dance about something

Origin: A pataquès was originally a botched liaison — the harmless but wrong consonant people insert while speaking, as in elle a cédé-r-à la panique. The grammarian Domergue tells the story behind the word in the 18th century. A young man at the theater, seated beside two richly dressed and evidently poorly educated women, finds a fan by his hand. Is this fan yours, madame? Il n'est point-z-à moi. Is it yours? Il n'est pas-t-à moi. Well then, said the young man, je ne sais pas-t-à qui est-ce — and out of that last phrase, repeated around the salons, came pataquès. Whether it happened nobody knows, but it is a good story. By the end of the 19th century the word had widened from a language fault to a blunder of any kind. The fuss-about-nothing sense has no known explanation; one can imagine it started with somebody being told off for a blunder and answering back.