English
wikipedia|Selling coal to Newcastle

Alternative forms
coals to Newcastle

Etymology
Newcastle upon Tyne (in Britain) was a major coal exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.

Phrase
infl|en|phrase|head=to carry coals to Newcastle

1. idiom To do something that is unneeded or redundant.

#:1851 However curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the whale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing really happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did indubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare. � Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 81.

Translations
trans-top|do something unneeded or redundant
German: Eulen nach Athen tragen
Icelandic: bera í bakkafullan lækinn
trans-mid
Russian: в Т�л� �о �воим �амова�ом
trans-bottom

See also
bring owls to Athens

• 2007-10-11 11:09 - Williamsayers79 - not specific to Tyneside dialect

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