ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard

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Archived revision by 82.38.5.21 (talk) as of 21:06, 7 September 2019.
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French

Etymology

Literally: to not break three feet of a duck; because a duck usually has two feet, it would be quite out of the ordinary to break the third. Another explanation is that it derives from the similar sounding cagnard (crooked horse), meant to be a horse rider; only a daring rider would risk pushing his horse to the point where it breaks one or more legs.

Verb

ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard

  1. to be mediocre; to be nothing out of the ordinary; to be nothing special.