toujours perdrix

== English == === Etymology === A Pseudo-Gallicism, derived from toujours +‎ perdrix, literally “always partridge”. The phrase is not used in French. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /tu.ʒʊɹ pɛɹˈdɹi/, /-ʒuɹ-/ === Phrase === toujours perdrix Too much of a good thing. 1886, The Pall Mall Budget. No. 941.–Vol. XXXIV. Thursday, October 7, 1886, p. 3 (Google US): "Perdrix, perdrix, toujours perdrix." "Roose, Roose, toujours Roose, Robson Roose." 1848, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist. Edited by Harrison Ainsworth. Vol. 84. Being the Third Part For 1848, London, p. 40 (Google, Google): Toujours Perdrix ! That's loving to satiety– There is no fun in life without variety ! ==== Usage notes ==== The phrase is also used written in italics, e.g.: 1878, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes. Volume the thirty-first, London, Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, p. 358 (Google US): It is the old story of toujours perdrix, toujours la Reine. 1894, If Men were Wise. A Novel. By E. L. Shew. In Three Volumes. Vol. II., London, p. 70 (Google US): But one can't go on for ever bathing and for ever drinking champagne – 'perdrix toujours perdrix' – one likes to stop before it gets to that. 1898, The Month A Catholic Magazine. Vol. XCI. January–June. 1898, p. 162 (Google US): Listening to their organs, one hears, not toujours perdrix, but toujours Post Office. ==== Further reading ==== Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-Communication for literary Men, general Readers, etc. Fourth Series. – Volume fourth. July–December 1869. London, 1869, p. 336f. (Google) === References === “toujours perdrix”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present. “toujours perdrix”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.