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Thu 22 Dec, 2005 02:09 pm
How did the phrase "Something smells fishy" come to mean, something doesn't seem right?
Who decided that? What makes a phrase stick? And why didn't Kicky's blue potatoes phrase take off?
What other weird phrases do you know of that mean something other than their literal meaning. I mean, just because some fish are in the room doesn't make it suspicious.
I think "smells fishy" is from the old days of going down to the fish market and buying fish. Anything that actually smells like fish is old.
So, how does that relate to being suspicious again?
One would be suspicious that the "fresh" fish, wasn't.
DrewDad wrote:One would be suspicious that the "fresh" fish, wasn't.
Ahhhhh, Drew Dad you are a cornucopia of information.
I'm just guessing, here. Don't take it as gospel.
Smuggling and customs inspections also come to mind as a possible origin.
Anything you say I take as gospel. You are, after all, the FSM incarnate.
Watch your mouth, or I'll set Gungasnake on you.
DrewDad doesn't know what he's talking about.
The term something smells fishy has its roots in the Boer Wars. The Boers were using the new smokeless cartridges in their German Mauser rifles which greatly concealed their positions, causing great consternation amongst the British.
But although the cartridges were smokeless, an inexplicable after effect of a freshly loaded round was the lingering smell of fish which hung in the air heavily for several minutes, then vanished.
As the British moved furtively through the brush they would on occasion catch a whiff of fish and exclaim "Something smells fishy."
At that point they would duck and cover because they knew the enemy was in the area.
I read that in a book of expression origins.
Simon and Schuster was the publisher, if I remember correctly.
We're not Boering you, are we?
Hey, drew, while I was doing some research to add validity to my story, I read this excerpt about the Boer War....
The year is 1899. Queen Victoria has recently celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. The British Empire is at its zenith in power and prestige. But the High Commissioner of Cape Colony in South Africa, Alfred Milner, wants more. He wants to gain for the Empire the economic power of the gold mines in the Dutch Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. He also wants to create a Cape-to-Cairo confederation of British colonies to dominate the African continent. And he wants to rule over it.
To do this, Milner precipitates a war with the Boers. As always, over-confident generals and politicians predict the war will be over 'by Christmas'.
Doesn't that have a familiar ring to it?
Well then, Mr. Cornicopia... What about the saying "Same sh!t, Different day?"
Where did that come from?
(Thinking you may know, what with the pitchfork and all...)
heard it through the grapevine
Well I'll be a monkey's uncle if this isn't the strangest thread of the day.
fish (n.)
O.E. fisc, from P.Gmc. *fiskaz (cf. O.H.G. fisc, O.N. fiskr, Du. vis, Ger. Fisch, Goth. fisks), from PIE *piskos (cf. L. piscis). The verb is O.E. fiscian. Fishy "shady, questionable" is first recorded 1840, perhaps from the notion of "slipperiness," or of giving off an intrusive odor. Fish story attested from 1819, from the tendency to exaggerate the size of the catch (or the one that got away). Fishtail (v.), of vehicles, first recorded 1927. Fig. sense of fish out of water first recorded 1613.
1840, eh?
That's only fifty-nine years before the Boer War began.
Gus is a goddamned liar . . . somebody git a rope . . .
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