Talk:ne pas avoir inventé le fil à couper le beurre

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

@Equinox Hello. I'm looking for a good English equivalent of this. I've found many suggestions but I don't which one is best:

One that's come up often is "he won't set the Thames/world on fire" (= he isn't very clever). Is that a thing? --Per utramque cavernam 13:14, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"Won't set the Thames on fire" suggests that something isn't going to be particularly brilliant or successful, whereas "not the sharpest knife in the drawer" (and dozens of variants) suggests actual stupidity. Equinox ◑ 13:17, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Equinox: All right, the three French expressions (and there might be others) are really about stupidity so I'll leave out that Thames translation.
Would you say those variants you're speaking of are easily attestable? I've found a few at [3], which prompted me to create an Appendix:Snowclones/not the X-est in the Y, but I didn't really look for uses. --Per utramque cavernam 13:27, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Haven't heard of all of the ones at your link. We have e.g. not the sharpest tool in the box, not the sharpest tool in the shed; I'd imagine many more are attestable. A similar pattern is a few X short of a Y (sandwiches...picnic, fries...Happy Meal), for craziness/insanity. Equinox ◑ 13:44, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Equinox: Ah yes, I see we have Appendix:Snowclones/few X short of a Y too by the way.
I wonder if "won't set the Thames on fire" could be translated by ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard in some contexts. --Per utramque cavernam 17:31, 4 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is the "butter-cutting thread" actually a thing?[edit]

Could it perhaps refer to cheese wire? Equinox ◑ 22:18, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Equinox: I don't think there's a type of wire specifically designed to cut butter but no other substances; it has to be more general-purpose than this. fr.wikipedia has an article on w:fr:fil à couper, where it says it can be used to cut butter, foie gras and clay; I suppose it could cut cheese as well. cheese wire sounds very specific too; can it be used to cut other things?
There's also the lyre, a kitchen utensil looking like this. Per utramque cavernam 22:32, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Going by Google Images etc. I think the translation should be wire, not thread; I will change that part. Equinox ◑ 22:43, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:ne_pas_avoir_inventé_le_fil_à_couper_le_beurre&oldid=61658736"