A
red herring is an idiom referring to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. For example, in
mystery fictionMystery fiction is a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym for detective fiction — in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime...
, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspect through emphasis or descriptive techniques; attention is drawn away from the true guilty party. While there is no such fish as a "red herring", the term red herring refers to
preserved herringA kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom and North America they are often eaten grilled for breakfast...
. The smoking and brining process gave the fish a distinct reddish-brown colour as well as a strong odour.
A
red herring is an idiom referring to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. For example, in
mystery fictionMystery fiction is a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym for detective fiction — in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime...
, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspect through emphasis or descriptive techniques; attention is drawn away from the true guilty party. While there is no such fish as a "red herring", the term red herring refers to
preserved herringA kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom and North America they are often eaten grilled for breakfast...
. The smoking and brining process gave the fish a distinct reddish-brown colour as well as a strong odour. The term is used in
Mother GooseMother Goose is a well-known figure in the literature of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. She is often prominent in Mother Goose stories, also more commonly known as "nursery rhymes"...
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- A man in the wilderness asked this of me
How many strawberries grow in the sea?
I answered him as I thought good
As many red herrings as swim in the wood.
It is popularly believed that the idiom originates from a technique of training of young
scent houndScent hounds are a type of hound that primarily hunts by scent rather than sight. The Scenthound breeds are generally regarded as having some of the most sensitive noses among canines....
s involving
"red" herringsA kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom and North America they are often eaten grilled for breakfast...
. The pungent fish would be dragged along a trail until a puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odour of a
foxFox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in the United...
or a
badgerBadgers, occasionally referred to as brocks, are short-legged, heavy-set carnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are some eight species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...
, the trainer would drag a red herring (whose strong scent confuses the animal) perpendicular to the animal's trail to confuse the dog. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent.
An alternate etymology points to escaping convicts who would use the pungent fish to throw off hounds in pursuit.
In reality, the technique was probably never used to train hounds. The term originates from an article published 14 February, 1807 by journalist
William CobbettWilliam Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
in the polemical Weekly Political Register. In a critique of the English press, which had mistakenly reported Napoleon's defeat, Cobbett recounted that he had once used a red herring to deflect hounds in pursuit of a hare, adding "It was a mere transitory effect of the political red-herring; for, on the Saturday, the scent became as cold as a stone."