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Jan 28, 2009 10:44
15 yrs ago
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Norwegian term

smør på flesk

Non-PRO Norwegian to English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
Some Eng.lang experts in Norway say the equivalent of "smør på flesk" is "guild the lily", but that merely implies attempting to improve something which is already perfect/beautiful, whereas "smør på flesk" can refer to anything, beautiful or ugly. The key issue is doing something twice unnecessarily. Any equivalent idioms in English? P.S. I'm not thinking of its use as a colloquial linguistic term to mean "tautological".
Proposed translations (English)
4 the same thing twice over
5 tautology
5 Too much of a good thing
3 +1 overdo something/go overboard
4 To butter your bacon
Change log

Jan 28, 2009 16:38: Egil Presttun changed "Language pair" from "Norwegian (Bokmal) to English" to "Norwegian to English" , "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Linguistics" to "Idioms / Maxims / Sayings"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (2): Britt McCary, Gunnar Sommerfeldt

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Proposed translations

6 hrs
Selected

the same thing twice over

Perhaps not the kind of idiom you are looking for, but it is possible to put it this way.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks for your suggestion, but I am looking for an idiom, rather than a neutral explanatory phrase. Difficult, though the idiom is common in many other languages, so it seems odd that we don't seem to have an equivalent in English!"
+1
7 hrs

overdo something/go overboard

I never understood the expression to something that was done only twice - I wasn't aware that there was a limit! (What about the third, fourth and tenth time..). Anyway, how you would best translate it would depend heavily on context. These are just some possibilities. If I were given a more specific context I might come up with something else.
Peer comment(s):
agree EC Translate : or "a bit much over the top" as taken form a GMAT test http://gmat.learnhub.com/lesson/page/3875-gmat-verbal-idioms...
50 mins
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8 hrs

tautology

Might be useful?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tautology

It depends on the context.
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15 hrs

Too much of a good thing

The term "smør på flesk" (butter on top of bacon), means litterally too much of a good thing
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44 days

To butter your bacon

Now, I don't know if this expression is all that much used, but I remember this from my childhood, as my grandmother would use it. (She's from LaCrosse, Wisconsin).

Example sentence:

Sending the letter both by mail and courier would be like buttering your bacon.

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