put the cart before the horse

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

put the cart before the horse (third-person singular simple present puts the cart before the horse, present participle putting the cart before the horse, simple past and past participle put the cart before the horse)

1. (idiomatic) To put things in the wrong order or with the wrong priorities; to put something inconsequential as more important than something more essential.
   • 1898, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 1, in The History of the United States:

     The hour had struck; and with it, as always, appeared the man. So it has ever been in the history of the world; though we, with characteristic vanity, uniformly put the cart before the horse, and declare that it is the man that brings the hour.

   • 1957 December 2, “Corruption of the Mind”, in Time:

     To attempt to remove the armaments before removing these substantive conflicts of interest is to put the cart before the horse.

   • 2005 July 27, David D. Kirkpatrick, “Timing of Hearings and Vote Stalls Confirmation Talks”, in New York Times, retrieved 6 Nov. 2008:

     Mr. Schumer said that the idea of agreeing to a date for a vote before the committee had held hearings was "to put the cart before horse."

Translations

to put things in the wrong order

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 本末倒置 (bun² mut⁶ dou² zi³), 食屎屙飯／食屎屙饭 (yue) (sik⁶ si² o¹ faan⁶)

  Mandarin: 本末倒置 (zh) (běnmòdàozhì), 本末顛倒／本末颠倒 (zh) (běnmòdiāndǎo)

• Czech: please add this translation if you can
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: het paard achter de wagen spannen (nl)
• Esperanto: ne iru fadeno antaŭ kudrilo (eo)
• Finnish: laittaa reki hevosen edelle, toimia nurinkurisesti, mennä takapuoli edellä puuhun, nousta latvasta puuhun
• French: mettre la charrue avant les bœufs (fr)
• Galician: poñer o carro diante dos bois
• German: das Pferd von hinten aufzäumen (de), den Pflug vor die Ochsen spannen (de) (with variants)
• Greek: προτρέχω (el) (protrécho)
• Hebrew: רתם את העגלה לפני הסוסים (he)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: nyúl viszi a puskát
• Icelandic: byrja á öfugum enda, hafa endaskipti á hlutunum
• Italian: mettere il carro davanti ai buoi
• Japanese: 本末転倒する (ja) (ほんまつてんとする, honmatsu tento suru)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: jūgt vezumu zirgam priekšā
• Malay: buat kerja balik bokong
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sette vognen foran hesten (no)

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: stawiać na głowie coś impf, postawić na głowie pf
• Portuguese: colocar o carro à frente dos bois
• Romanian: a pune căruța înaintea cailor
• Russian: ста́вить теле́гу впереди́ ло́шади (stávitʹ telégu vperedí lóšadi), начина́ть не с того́ конца́ (načinátʹ ne s tovó koncá)
• Spanish: poner el carro delante de los bueyes, poner el carro delante del caballo m, poner la venda antes de la herida, poner el carro delante del burro
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: tchôkî l' tcherete divant les tchvås (wa), mete li tchår divant les boûs (wa), brider si tchvå på cou (wa), mete li tcherowe divant les boûs (wa)

See also

• ass-backwards
• hysteron proteron
• jump the gun
• tail wagging the dog