Talk:combattre le feu par le feu
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This has been created by tbot from the translation table; the translation itself was added par @Lmaltier, but I don't know why he did that; this looks like a calque of fight fire with fire, while the real idiom is combattre le mal par le mal or soigner le mal par le mal. The French Wiktionary doesn't even have it. I agree there are a lot of hits on Google, though. --Barytonesis (talk) 19:39, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
- Yes, both exist: 26000 hits on Google for combattre le feu par le feu, 34000 for combattre le mal par le mal. The French Wiktionary isn't complete (of course), and both are absent, but they will be added sometime or another. Lmaltier (talk) 19:54, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
Keep, as has been pointed out it exists, a calque though it may be. If you dispute the fact that it exists, take it to WT:RFV. If you think it should be noted that combattre le mal par le mal is another usage (that isn't a calque), feel free to create that entry and link to it as a synonym. Wiktionary doesn't delete forms that are not per se standard usage, as long as they are in use in their language - as combattre le feu par le feu obviously is. — Kleio (t · c) 20:09, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
- Note that, in French, I think that the origin is with forest fires. A calque of fight fire with fire is not quite impossible, but I would be surprised. In any case, we should consider that fight fire with fire is not a calque of combattre le feu par le feu. Lmaltier (talk) 20:24, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
- Keep (and for future reference, this is a matter for RFV). Andrew Sheedy (talk) 20:19, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
- RFD kept by unpopulous consensus. I also vote keep to make it more populous. --Dan Polansky (talk) 13:10, 25 February 2017 (UTC)