Thursday, January 24, 2013

Thursday Trivia: Red Herrings


You've all heard the phrase "a red herring". It's a technique used to distract you from your current pursuit.


But did you know in a literal sense, there's no such thing as a red herring?

The term came about when describing a kipper that was very heavily smoked for preservation - a process used prior to refrigeration.

The curing process turned the flesh of the kipper a reddish color.

What does that term have to do with a pet blog - other than the fact all 3 cats are now drooling over all this fish talk?

If you use a red herring to throw someone off your scent, you're referencing a hunting hound from old England.


The earliest reference is in a pamphlet dated 1599 by the Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe. He writes, "Next, to draw on hounds to a scent, to a red herring skin there is nothing comparable."

Somehow, out of this grew a tale that a red herring was used to confuse the noses of hounds chasing a fox. Yet Michael Quinn writes in his blog "World Wide Words" that actual historical mention of the red herring isn't to trick a dog or throw him off the scent, but rather to train the dog to follow a scent in the first place.

How its meaning was flipped 180 degrees can be traced to the writings of a political journalist from the early 1800s who purposely skewed its meaning.


The use of the phrase caught on and became an idiom for purposeful redirection still in popular use today.

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Sources: Wikipedia and Michael Quinn 

18 comments:

  1. And that's why I read blogs every day...you never know what piece of interesting trivia you can learn...this one is fun

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    1. And we had fun snoopervising mom while she did all the research and stuff MOL!!

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  2. Yep but did they get to eat it when they found it? Good game if they did. Love herrings. Have a terrific Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  3. fish.....we love us some fish....

    wait - mom says that wasn't the point. bummer :)

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  4. We love your trivia..BOL Have a wonderful Thurzday xx0xx

    Mollie and Alfie

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  5. That sounds a little fishie to us...heeheeheeheehee! Hopefully those working hounds of days of old , got a bucket of herrings at the end of the day :)

    the critters in the cottage xo

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  6. Yum yum. Red or not, that herring is making us drool!

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  7. I'm still wondering when I am going to get some herring!

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  8. Great trivia today! ... but now, like all the others, I'm hungry.
    ; ) Katie

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  9. Quite interesting. I always am curious about where these often used sayings come from. Thanks for sharing. Purrs and hugs, the gang at The Cat on My Head

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  10. We had fish for supper tonight but we don't think it was a red herring because it was white. (And nommy.)

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  11. Leave it to a politician to use a word for his own means. I've heard of the phrase but never ever have heaerd it used.

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  12. Wow, thank you for posting about this and about telling mommy about World Wide Words. She loves language! Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrs.

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  13. Well, we actually learned something today!!

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  14. So long, and thanks for all the fish...stories!

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  15. The Trout Town tabbies will love this one!!! It's a bit fishy though ;)

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  16. Mom says she thinks she saw a real one on her visit to China a few years ago...and no way was she gonna put that thing on her plate, nope, none whatsoever...just sayin'...paw pats Savannah

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Coolio! A comment? For US?