Noyer le poisson
Meaning: To confuse the issue deliberately; to dodge a question.
Language: French
Literally: To drown the fish
Category: Animals
Origin: The modern sense — to bury an awkward question under a flood of irrelevant talk — is from the 1930s, but fishermen were using the phrase from the end of the 19th century for something entirely literal: once a fish was hooked, pulling it in and out of the water repeatedly wore it down before it was landed, which is also a fair description of exhausting an opponent with a question by dunking it in irrelevance over and over. A rival theory points to fishmongers reviving a tired or damaged fish's appearance by churning it in a tub of water so the motion made it look alive to a buyer — deceit rather than exhaustion, but the same act of drowning something in water to hide its true state.
Equivalents in other languages
- Japanese: お茶を濁す (ocha o nigosu) — literally: To muddy the tea
- Russian: Заговаривать зубы (Zagovarivat' zuby) — literally: To talk someone's teeth away
- Greek: Άλλα λόγια ν' αγαπιόμαστε — literally: Other words so we may love each other
More idioms — Animals
- Appeler un chat un chat — To call things by their proper name; to speak bluntly.
- Donner sa langue au chat — To give up trying to guess the answer.
- Faire d'une mouche un éléphant — To make a mountain out of a molehill; to exaggerate wildly.
- faire la morte — Pretending not to notice something or ignoring a situation.
- montrer les dents — Displaying aggression, defiance, or readiness to fight.
- être un ours — Being unfriendly, grumpy, and difficult to approach socially.
More French idioms
- Chercher midi à quatorze heures — To overcomplicate a simple matter.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be extremely lazy.
- Prendre ses jambes à son cou — To run away very fast.
- C'est la croix et la bannière — It is an enormous effort or ordeal.
- Faire la fine bouche — To be overly picky or hard to please.
- Se lever du pied gauche — To wake up in a bad mood.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.