fishy

Etymology

It is formed from English fish + -y,^[2][3][4][5] first recorded in Middle English as fishi.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like a fish, perhaps slimy: about 1475, in sailing directions that describe the sea bottom as having "blak fischey stonys".^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the word was used of food tasting or smelling of fish (1547) and of waters full of fish (1552);^[2][3] the second sense is now only poetic or jocular.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "consisting of fish" and "having the qualities of fish".^[8] From 1813 it described a person's eyes or gaze as cold, dull and vacant like a fish's.^[2][4] In 18th- and 19th-century slang a drinker was fishy when he looked ill, especially about the eyes, after a bout of drinking, and Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it in B. Franklin's "Drinkers Dictionary" of 1737.^[9] The colloquial sense "questionable, suspicious" is recorded by the OED from 1834^[2] and by Green's from 1839, in Punch;^[9] Etymonline dates it to 1840 and suggests that it comes from the notion of slipperiness or of a bad smell;^[3] Green's likewise points to the smell of rotting fish or the slipperiness of fresh fish.^[9] The noun fishy, a little fish or a child's pet name for one, is formed with the diminutive suffix and recorded from about 1821.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1475 – like a fish, perhaps slimy.^[2][6]
• 1547 – tasting or smelling of fish.^[2]
• 1552 – of a river or sea, full of fish.^[2]
• c. 1617 – consisting of fish.^[2]
• 1737 – slang, looking ill after drinking.^[9]
• 1813 – of the eyes, cold, dull and vacant.^[2]
• c. 1821 – noun, a little fish; a pet name for a fish.^[2]
• 1834 – questionable, suspicious.^[2] Green's first quotation is from 1839, and Etymonline dates the sense to 1840.^[9][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, like or suggestive of fish, especially in smell or taste: The fridge had a fishy smell all week.^[10][7][2]
2. (informal) Arousing suspicion; dubious or questionable: There was something fishy about the cheap tickets.^[10][7][2]
3. Of the eyes or a look, dull and vacant.^[10][2][4]
4. Full of fish (now poetic or jocular).^[10][4][2]
5. Consisting of fish.^[2][4][8]

Noun

1. A little fish; a child's pet name for a fish.^[2]

Word family

• fishily
• fishiness

Related words

• fish

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins