Dictionary

red herring en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

(figurative): One possible origin of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This was true, but the modern meaning of a false trail may have been popularized in a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon. The OED has another possible earlier origin in the legacy of clergyman Jasper Mayne in 1672 when he misled a servant by leaving him "Somewhat that would make him Drink after his Death" in a large trunk. When the trunk was opened, the contents were found to be red herring. (soldier): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; soldier is, reciprocally, a slang term for the fish.

Meanings

1. A herring that is cured in smoke and brine strong enough to turn the flesh red; a type of kipper.
   • ‘Mamma,’ said Rosamond, ‘when Fred comes down I wish you would not let him have red herrings. I cannot bear the smell of them all over the house at this hour of the morning.’ 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 11, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 170:
   • Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before. 1660 March 8 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 28th, 1659–1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 74:
2. (figuratively) A clue, information, argument, etc. that is or is intended to be misleading, diverting attention from the real answer or issue.
   • Colombia is a red herring, however. The songs that became Madame X actually came together during Madonna’s two years in Portugal, where she decamped in 2017 when her son David enrolled in Benfica’s football academy. 2019 June 8, Kitty Empire, “Madonna: Madame X review – a splendidly bizarre return to form”, in The Guardian, London:
   • Caroline visibly wavered for a second or two, much as a roulette ball might coyly hover between two numbers. Then she declined the tempting red herring. 1926, Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd:
   • I will, of course, turn my analytical talents to bear on the identity of the imitation Hathor, but in my opinion she is only a red herring – a nuisance, a distraction. 2012 March 1, Elizabeth Peters, Children of the Storm (Amelia Peabody), Hachette UK, →ISBN, →OCLC:
   • By its thirtieth episode, the show [Twin Peaks] had degenerated into tics and shticks and mannerisms and red herrings, and part of the explanation for this was that [David] Lynch was trying to divert our attention from the fact that he really had no idea how to wrap the central murder case up. 1997, David Foster Wallace, “David Lynch keeps his head”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
3. A red herring prospectus.
4. (archaic, slang) A soldier.
   • “Devil a bit, Ma’am,” said the Major. “We couldn’t afford it. Unless the world was peopled with J.B.’s—tough and blunt old Joes, Ma’am, plain red herrings with hard roes, Sir—we couldn’t afford it. It wouldn’t do.” 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 208:

Forms

Relateds

MacGuffin · lead by the nose · lead someone down the garden path · neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring · wild-goose chase · misdirection

Synonyms

decoy

Translations (50)

cy pennog coch (smoke-cured herring) · it aringa affumicata (smoke-cured herring) · it specchietto per le allodole (misleading clue) · pl podpucha (misleading clue) · hu félrevezetés (misleading clue) · da falsk spor (misleading clue) · fi savusilli (smoke-cured herring) · ru копчёная селёдка (smoke-cured herring) · nl bokking (smoke-cured herring) · nl gerookte haring (smoke-cured herring) · pt arenque fumado (smoke-cured herring) · it falsa pista (misleading clue) · pt arenque defumado (smoke-cured herring) · fr diversion (misleading clue) · no feilspor (misleading clue) · fi hämäys (misleading clue) · ro diversiune (misleading clue) · el καπνιστή ρέγγα (smoke-cured herring) · ru ло́жный след (misleading clue) · el αντιπερισπασμός (misleading clue) · el παραπλάνηση (misleading clue) · es pista falsa (misleading clue) · fr hareng saur (smoke-cured herring) · es indicio falaz (misleading clue) · de Ablenkung (misleading clue) · fr hareng rouge (misleading clue) · pt pista falsa (misleading clue) · pt cortina de fumaça (misleading clue) · cmn 煙幕彈 /烟幕弹 (misleading clue) · de Nebelkerze (misleading clue) · pl fałszywy trop (misleading clue) · bg пушена херинга (smoke-cured herring) · hu hamis/félrevezető nyom (misleading clue) · fi harhautus (misleading clue) · cy ysgyfarnog (misleading clue) · fr leurre (misleading clue) · nl vals spoor (misleading clue) · pl wędzony śledź (smoke-cured herring) · hu füstölt hering (smoke-cured herring) · ka სატყუარა (misleading clue) · sk falošná stopa (misleading clue) · ru заговаривание зубов (misleading clue) · sv böckling (smoke-cured herring) · fr fausse piste (misleading clue) · bg уло́вка (misleading clue) · de falsche Fährte (misleading clue) · nl afleidingsmanoeuvre (misleading clue) · es arenque ahumado (smoke-cured herring) · no blindspor (misleading clue) · de Bückling (smoke-cured herring)

wikipedia: Michael Quinion