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The expression ‘a pretty kettle of fish’ or ‘a fine/nice kettle of fish’ means ‘a muddle or awkward state of affairs’. It’s the kind of situation that Oliver Hardy was referring to when he told Stan Laurel “here’s another nice mess you’ve got me into”. The phrase ‘ a different kettle of fish ‘ has a separate meaning ...
Oct 26, 2011 · It is silent on ‘a different kettle of fish’, but gives the ‘fête champêtre’ as the possible origin of another expression. ‘The discomfort of this sort of party,’ it speculates, ‘may have led to the phrase “a pretty kettle of fish”, meaning an awkward state of affairs, a mess, a muddle.’. If true, this is very sad.
- The phrase means, as you said, 'a different thing.' According to this website : There was, it seems, a custom by which the gentry on the Scottish b...
- The British idiom a different kettle of fish and a whole new kettle of fish is related to the North American idiom a whole new ball game . The latt...
- A fine or pretty kettle of fish As Peter Shor's comment beneath Ralph Richardson's answer indicates, "kettle of fish" has been used as a slang term...
- I have the earliest attestation for the idiom dated to 1742 in Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs . The work is Henry Fielding's novel The Histo...
- It would appear from this that Americans call fish kettles something else. This page shows what we in the UK mean by a fish kettle. We regularly us...
- A Kitel or Ketel was a type of net/fence hybrid used in the sea but chiefly in rivers in Medieval England among other locales. They were drawn comp...
- I attribute this phrase to Laurel and Hardy, during the early 40's . Oliver would always say to Stan "this is another kettle of fish that you have...
The expression ‘a kettle of fish’ means a mess or a muddle. I should mention at this point that there are conflicting opinions to what the ‘kettle’ being referred to in that phrase was. That needn’t concern us here as ‘a different kettle of fish’ derives from ‘a kettle of fish’ whatever that phrase’s origin.
The idiom “kettle of fish” is a well-known phrase used to describe a situation that is confusing or chaotic. However, few people know where this expression comes from or what its historical context is. To understand the origins of this idiom, we need to go back in time to 18th century Scotland.
The expression dates from the 18th century and has developed two meanings. Firstly, the original one, a fine kettle of fish means that an awkward or disagreeable state of affairs has arisen. Secondly, a different kettle of fish means a new or different state of affairs has arisen. Both these figurative expressions derive from a kettle or pot of ...
Definition of fine kettle of fish in the Idioms Dictionary. fine kettle of fish phrase. What does fine kettle of fish expression mean? ... (Usually appears in the ...
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What does a fine/pretty kettle of fish expression mean? Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. ... Alternatively, `kettle' may refer to a fish kettle, which is ...
