fish out of water

== English == === Etymology === Earliest recorded uses: "fish out of the water" (1585, Lamentable Complaint of Commonality), "Fishes out of the Water" (1613, Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage). Earliest use of metaphor by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales: Prologue (c. 1405) as "fissh þt is waterlees". Compare also the antonymous French comme un poisson dans l'eau, German wie ein Fisch im Wasser. === Pronunciation === === Noun === fish out of water (plural fishes out of water or fish out of water) (idiomatic) A person in unfamiliar and often uncomfortable surroundings. Synonym: square peg in a round hole ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== === References ===