Fish out of water

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 29, 2005

In Reply to: Fish out of water posted by Radhika on April 29, 2005

: Can I have the origin/history of the fish out of water?

: I'be interested to see how far back the members of this forum can trace it. But however early an example you found, I doubt if you could ever say you had found the "first" usage. It's just too obvious a metaphor for someone being out of their element (literally out of their element, since water was for thousands of years believed to be an "element").