fish out of water

See also: fish-out-of-water

English

Etymology

• Earliest recorded use: "Fishes out of the Water" (1613, Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage).
• Earliest use of metaphor by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales: Prologue (1483) as "fissh that is waterlees".

Compare also the antonymous French comme un poisson dans l’eau, German wie ein Fisch im Wasser.

Pronunciation

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Noun

fish out of water (plural fishes out of water or fish out of water)

1. (idiomatic) A person in unfamiliar and often uncomfortable surroundings.

   Synonym: square peg in a round hole

   • 1921, Edgar Wallace, chapter 2, in The Book of All-Power:

     [I]nto this queer assembly, something of a fish out of water and wholly out of his element, strode Cherry Bim, that redoubtable man.

   • 1942 May 25, “Sport: Pitcher Hits Ball”, in Time, retrieved 2 October 2016:

     A pitcher at bat is usually considered such a fish out of water that he is expected to foul, ground or strike out.

   • 1990 September 17, Larry Rohter, quoting Quincy Jones, “‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ Puts Rap in Mainstream”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “The basis of this show is fish out of water,” said the executive producer, Quincy Jones, the music impresario who has never before put his name on a television series but whose work as producer of Michael Jackson's albums won him respect in Hollywood as a canny judge of public tastes.

   • 2004 December 22, Jennifer Medina, “Housewives, Try This for Desperation”, in New York Times, retrieved 2 October 2016:

     Many stay-at-home fathers find that they are fish out of water, too.

Translations

a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings

• Afrikaans: soos 'n vis op droë grond (af) (literally “like a fish on dry ground”)
• Catalan: peix fora d'aigua m
• Finnish: kuin kala kuivalla maalla
• German: wie ein Fisch auf dem Trockenen (literally “like a fish on dry ground”), but less common, more usually sich fremd fühlen (literally “to feel foreign, strange”), sich nicht zu Hause fühlen (literally “not to feel at home”)
• Italian: pesce fuor d'acqua
• Japanese: 陸に上がった河童 (おかにあがったかっぱ, oka ni agatta kappa)
• Malay: seperti rusa masuk kampung, bagai kerbau terkejut oleh gong, tak pernah masuk gelanggang bergung
• Maltese: ħuta barra mill-ilma
• Portuguese: como peixe fora d'água
• Spanish: como pez fuera del agua