neither fish nor fowl
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
ni carne ni pescado
- I answer: I'm a Russian intellectual, and as such, a transitional figure: neither fish nor fowl.
Examples
-
His style of writing is neither fish nor fowl; it's hard to tell if he's being serious or sarcastic.
-
For the Anglophone world in which we live, mushrooms are, so to speak, neither fish nor fowl, foul nor fair.
Academic text (1990) -
The new policy was neither fish nor fowl, confusing both the employees and the management.
-
Her opinion on the matter was neither fish nor fowl, leaving everyone unsure of her true stance.
Synonyms
1
8.1
Not able to fit into any group
Covering many different kinds and not fitting one group
An unclear thing that does not help you understand or decide
Antonyms
How Clear
9
3.7
∞
1.0
- Informal
1
8.1
68
6.3
1
8.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally says 'not fish and not fowl,' so a learner who knows 'neither/ nor' and the nouns 'fish' and 'fowl' can infer it means it is not one category or the other; the idiomatic extension to 'doesn't fit a recognised category' is a straightforward composition of those parts. The construction mirrors a common cross-linguistic pattern of denying two prototypical categories, making the meaning immediately recoverable for B1 learners.
Etymology
The idiom neither fish nor fowl comes from the simple picture of something that is neither a fish nor a fowl, a bird, so people could not put it into either group. That's why it now means 'does not fit into any clear group'.