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When you have to much of a good thing, or are repeating things superfluously, you’re putting cake on cake – t\u00e5rta p\u00e5 t\u00e5rta<\/strong> or kaka p\u00e5 kaka<\/strong>, at least in Swedish [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n – Det \u00e4r t\u00e5rta p\u00e5 t\u00e5rta = That would be too much [source<\/a>] The English phrase “too much of a good thing” first appeared in writing in Shakespeare’s play As You Like It<\/em> in 1600 [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n A similar idiom is “to gild the lily<\/strong>“, meaning to embellish or improve something unnecessarily. Or to add superfluous attributes to something. It is apparently a misquote from Shakespeare’s play King John<\/em> (1595):<\/p>\n “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Other related idioms include “to go overboard” and “to over-egg the pudding” [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n In Chinese an equivalent idiom is \u756b\u86c7\u6dfb\u8db3<\/strong> [\u753b\u86c7\u6dfb\u8db3] (hu\u00e0sh\u00e9ti\u0101nz\u00fa) = “to draw a snake and add legs” [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Are there other idioms in English or other languages with a similar meaning?<\/p>\n
\n– Det \u00e4r lite t\u00e5rta p\u00e5 t\u00e5rta att tala om \u201dISBN-nummer” = It is a bit superfluous to talk about “ISBN number”<\/p>\n