Timeline for Where does the phrase "red herring" come from?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 12, 2019 at 7:44 | comment | added | Graham | It's not the original source, of course, but many people will probably know it from The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. It's one of the riddles which Nutkin sings to Old Brown the owl. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 21:14 | comment | added | Sven Yargs | Google Books finds an even earlier version of the rhyme in James Kendrews, The Waggon Load of Money (1820): "A man in the wilderness asked of me, How many strawberries grew in the sea? I gave him an answer the best that I could, As many red herrings grew in the wood." Unfortunately, only part of the rhyme is visible in Google Books' snippet view of that book. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 21:12 | comment | added | Sven Yargs | You can see a full version of the rhyme in The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (1833): "The man in the wilderness,/Asked me,/How many strawberries/Grew in the sea?/I answered him as I thought good,/As many red herrings/As grew in the wood." | |
| S Aug 8, 2014 at 21:09 | history | suggested | Matt Gutting | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
corrected formatting
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| Aug 8, 2014 at 20:19 | comment | added | Matt Gutting | Welcome @Sarah! Don't suppose you have a source for this rhyme - if you have any sort of reference for it, please do edit your post to add that information. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 20:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Aug 8, 2014 at 21:09 | |||||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 20:04 | review | Late answers | |||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 20:20 | |||||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 19:49 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 21:08 | |||||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 19:48 | history | answered | Sarah Miller | CC BY-SA 3.0 |