Even the best fish smell when they are three days old: Piscine phrases

Q. Why is it that phrases concerning fish tend to be derogatory

A. It's true, many do, probably because, as in the phrase above - meaning that even the most welcome guests can outstay their welcome - fish do tend to honk after a very short time. It may also come from the fact that fish, unlike 'flesh and fowl' seem pretty alien to us warm-blooded mammals. In fact fish are very fishy, meaning suspicious or 'slippery', from the very fact that they are so, well fishy - and that smell factor.

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Q. Fish and fowl

A. Neither fish, flesh nor fowl: neither one thing nor another - also heard as neither fish, flesh nor red herring.

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Q. What about these less than complimentary terms

A.

To fish for compliments - to try to elicit praise, usually by asking leading questions

To fish in troubled waters - to try to take advantage of a chaotic situation; from the belief among anglers that fish are more likely to bite in turbulent water

To be a fish out of water - someone feeling ill at ease; fish out of water can neither swim nor breathe and tend to flap around

To be a cold fish - to be cold, unemotional or impassive; from the fact that fish don't have the most expressive of faces and, more literally, are cold to the touch

To cry stinking fish - to belittle one's own achievement or offering, in the sense of a fishmonger offering rotten fish for sale

To drink like a fish - to overindulge in the sauce - do fish drink

To eat no fish - an Elizabethan expression denoting an honest man; Protestants had ceased the Roman Catholic practice of eating fish on a Friday, so if one ate fish, one was a Catholic and therefore suspect

To feed the fishes - to be seasick or to drown - remember 'Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes' from The Godfather

A fishwife - a vulgar, loud woman, from the notion that women in fish markets were known for their less than savoury language

Queer fish - eccentric or odd

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Q. Surely there must be some flattering ones

A. Tough one. Given that the derivation of pretty kettle of fish is from the rather bucolic idea of a riverside picnic, where a newly caught salmon is cooked on the spot in a fish kettle, you'd think that the phrase might denote something positive. Not so, it means 'a muddle'.

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However, the fish was used as a symbol of Christ, from the parable of the feeding of the five thousand, as well as Jesus' pronouncement that his disciples should be 'fishers of men'. Also, the Ancient Greek word for fish, ikhthus, formed an acronym in Greek of the words 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour'.

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Q. Anything else

A. Tin fish - a torpedo

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See also the article on meaty metaphors

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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

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By Simon Smith