English term
Passer du coq à l'âne
Origine
Cette expression serait un dérivé de celle datant du XIVe siècle : "saillir du coq à l'asne". Au XIIIe siècle, le mot "asne" désignait une cane. "Saillir" quant à lui n'a pas changé de sens, il signifie toujours "s'accoupler". Or, il semble que les coqs essaient parfois de se reproduire avec des canes. "Saillir du coq à l'asne" serait donc devenu "passer du coq à l'âne" par déformation du mot "ane" sans accent. Cette expression signifie que l'on parle d'un sujet puis d'un autre alors que ceux-ci n'ont pas de liens directs.
| 4 +4 | To jump from one subject to another |
Carol Gullidge
|
| 4 | go off at a tangent |
Nicolas Gambardella
|
| 3 +1 | To jump from pillar to post |
Mpoma
|
Jul 13, 2023 03:25: Francois Boye changed "Language pair" from "French to English" to "English to French"
Jul 17, 2023 09:06: Daryo changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Catharine Cellier-Smart, Tony M, Daryo
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Proposed translations
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
To jump from one subject to another
United Kingdom
Going the extra mile for premium results
Native in: French (Variants: Swiss, Belgian, Standard-France, Luxembourgish, Canadian)
Works in: English to French, French to English
go off at a tangent
| neutral |
Tony M
: Yes, but that doesn't have quite the same connotation in EN — it really means 'diverger' or 'bifurquer', rather than simply hop about between different subjects.
23 hrs
|
To jump from pillar to post
"Jump from pillar to post" is really very good because the FR expression is colourful, so it's good to find something colourful in EN. But also... it means precisely the same thing: quite rare to find a distinctly picturesque and also precise translation of an idiom like this.
| agree |
Carol Gullidge
: Totally agree!
6 hrs
|
|
Thanks (on behalf of writeaway)
|
|
| neutral |
Tony M
: Not really the same idiom: in EN, this tends to imply "sending someone off on a succession of wild goose chases that avoid their actually achieving their goal"; a bit like dealing with a tax administration!
21 hrs
|
Reference comments
Google. NOTHING to do with Sports/Fitness, as usual
English
passer du coq à l'âne
Jump from pillar to post
Traduction de "passer du coq à l'âne" en anglais
Verbe
jump from one subject to another
https://context.reverso.net/traduction/francais-anglais/pass...
French to English
Translation: To change the subject abruptly
Literal meaning: To jump from the rooster to the donkey
Register: Informal - Funny
https://allaboutfrench.com/sauter-du-coq-a-lane
etc. etc. etc.
| Good evening ! You're right I beg your pardon. |
| agree |
Yolanda Broad
18 mins
|
| agree |
Mpoma
: "Jump from pillar to post" is very nice. Because the FR expression is colourful, so it's good to find something colourful in EN. But also... it means precisely the same thing!
10 hrs
|
| agree |
AllegroTrans
: a w.o.t. as usual
12 hrs
|
| agree |
Carol Gullidge
: Yes, this is the sort of “colour” I had in mind!
16 hrs
|
| agree |
Daryo
: That was so hard to find!
5 days
|
Something went wrong...