[Idioms #17] to throw a red herring
Enrico C
"It's a red herring that misguided people throw up to distract you
from the real issues."
What does it mean?
Well, a herring is a fish, you know, a small Atlantic fish that swims
in large groups and is used for food.
Here's a picture!
http://pingus.seul.org/files/contrib/grumbel/herring.png
But, what about red herrings?
A red herring is a false issue, an unimportant fact or idea someone
throws into the conversation to take people’s attention away from the
important facts and from the matter under consideration.
"He deliberately threw a red herring into the conversation."
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the origin of this
expression is in the custom of using the scent of a smoked, dried
herring, which was red, to train dogs to hunt.
But I found a longer and slightly different explanation on
www.hindu.com . They say that a herring...
turns red only when it is "cured" - that is, when it is smoked and
salted. The fish emits a very strong smell and in the past criminals
made use of it to help them in their bid to escape. Convicts used the
herring to help them throw dogs off the scent. Since the herring had a
very strong smell, the police dogs followed the scent of the herring
rather than that of the escaped convict! The original expression was
"drag a red herring across the trail", but now it's been reduced to
"red herring".
Other red herrings I fished in the Net:
"The issue of the pay cut is a red herring and is not related to the
main issues."
(www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6720)
"We hadn’t finished the project yet, but we didn’t want the boss to
know. So we threw the boss a party in honor of his birthday as a red
herring. He forgot all about the project’s deadline!
(www.heathermeloche.com)
"The detectives followed all the leads, but unfortunately they were
all red herrings."
"The Minister said that he wouldn't answer the question because it
involved national security; but that was a red herring to avoid a
discussion of the terrible mistakes he had made."
(www.hindu.com)
--
Enrico C ~ No native speaker
Jack Hamilton
>"It's a red herring that misguided people throw up to distract you
>from the real issues."
I don't think that "throw" is part of the idiom - it just happened to be
used in some of your examples. "Throw" is typically not used with "red
herring".
--
In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted comfort and security.
And in the end, they lost it all - freedom, comfort and security.
Edward Gibbons
--
Jack Hamilton
j...@acm.org
Enrico C
in <news:j3ci10hnvge8sjrcd...@4ax.com>
> Enrico C <enri...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>
>>"It's a red herring that misguided people throw up to distract you
>>from the real issues."
>
> I don't think that "throw" is part of the idiom - it just happened to be
> used in some of your examples. "Throw" is typically not used with "red
> herring".
Yeah, I see you're right. "Throw" is not part of the "red herring"
idiom, actually.
In fact, you can say "it's a red herring", for instance, without
"throwing" any red minnow into the conversation :D
Therefore, I've changed the Subject of this post consequently.
Anyway, isn't "throw" a typical action in this case?
What else can you *do* with red herrings?
Just asking :)
--
Enrico C ~ No native speaker
The standard Usenet signature delimiter: DASH-DASH-BLANK
Jack Hamilton
>Jack Hamilton | alt.languages.english
>in <news:j3ci10hnvge8sjrcd...@4ax.com>
>
>> Enrico C <enri...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>>
>>>"It's a red herring that misguided people throw up to distract you
>>>from the real issues."
>>
>> I don't think that "throw" is part of the idiom - it just happened to be
>> used in some of your examples. "Throw" is typically not used with "red
>> herring".
>
>Yeah, I see you're right. "Throw" is not part of the "red herring"
>idiom, actually.
>
>In fact, you can say "it's a red herring", for instance, without
>"throwing" any red minnow into the conversation :D
>
>Therefore, I've changed the Subject of this post consequently.
>
>Anyway, isn't "throw" a typical action in this case?
I think it's more often used with some form of "to be": "There was a
footprint under the window, but it was a red herring."
>What else can you *do* with red herrings?
You can plant them.
>Just asking :)