Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Synonym ofneither fish nor fowl(“noteasilycategorized; notrightlybelongingorfittingwellin agivengrouporsituation; also, nothavingtheadvantagesof the variousoptions”).1844April, Scott, “Rise and Progress of Culinary Literature and Cookery[running head]”, inThe Foreign Quarterly Review, American edition, volume XXXIII, New York, N.Y.: Published by Leonard Scott & Co. 112Fulton-Street,page110:The work of Ude is intended for the higher ranks, and for people of fortune. We conceive the book and the cook to have been overrated. It is neither French nor English —neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. For the rest, Lord Sefton, who was too much of a mere glutton, would have perverted the taste of any cook, however good, who had been long in his service.1875,Henry James,Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: J. R. Osgood:He had frequent fits of melancholy in which he declared that he wasneither fish nor flesh nor good red herring. His was neither an irresponsibly contemplative nature nor a sturdily practical one, and he was for ever looking in vain for the uses of the things that please and the charm of the things that sustain.[1898,E[benezer] Cobham Brewer, “Fish”, inDictionary of Phrase and Fable, Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words that Have a Tale to Tell[1], new, revised, corrected, and enlarged edition, Philadelphia, Pa.:Henry Altemus Company[reproduced onBartleby.com],→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon5 January 2016:It is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl;orNeither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.Not fish (food for the monk), not flesh (food for the people generally), nor yet red herring (food for paupers). Suitable to no class of people; fit for neither one thing nor another. ⁂ Fish comes first because in the Middle Ages the clergy took precedence of the laity. “She would be a betwixt-and-between ... . neither fish nor fowl.” —Mrs. Lynn Linton.]
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