/ˈkome un ˈpeʃʃe fwɔr ˈdakkwa/ lit. ‘like a fish out of water’
Italian idiom, everyday. Someone who feels uncomfortable and out of place in unfamiliar surroundings.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Come un pesce fuor d’acqua
?
Everyday Italian, used exactly like the English. It usually comes with sentirsi (to feel) or essere: “mi sento come un pesce fuor d’acqua”, “Tom si sentiva come un pesce fuor d’acqua”. “Fuor” is the short, old form of fuori, kept only in fixed phrases like this one.
Also said essere un pesce fuor d’acqua, come un pesce fuori dall’acqua
Come un pesce fuor d’acqua
in real sentences
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Mi sento come un pesce fuor d’acqua.
I feel like a fish out of water.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tom si sentiva come un pesce fuor d’acqua.
Tom felt like a fish out of water.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Come un pesce fuor d’acqua
come from?
The same picture exists in English, French and German, so it’s hard to say who had it first. For English, the Oxford English Dictionary (as cited by English Wiktionary) traces the metaphor to Chaucer around 1405. The Treccani dictionary lists the Italian as “essere (come) un pesce fuor d’acqua”, meaning to be ill at ease somewhere unfamiliar, without a date.
Mistakes learners make with Come un pesce fuor d’acqua
Mixing it up with “non sapere che pesci prendere” (not knowing which fish to take), which means not knowing what to do. Both have fish, and both describe someone at a loss, so learners swap them.
Other Italian idioms like Come un pesce fuor d’acqua
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?
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