where does the phrase 'that's a different kettle of fish' come from?

Answer 1

Try 'world wide words' website - they've got info on lots of words and phrases origins.

Answer 2

It’s originally British.

There are actually two common idioms based around the phrase a kettle of fish. One is yours, which means “This is a different matter from the one previously mentioned”. The other is more of an exclamation: either as a pretty kettle of fish! or a fine kettle of fish!, meaning that some awkward state of affairs has arisen. The latter is much older, dating from the eighteenth century, while yours is twentieth-century and seems to be derived from it.

Nobody is really sure where the expression comes from, but we do know that the phrase a kettle of fish was originally a literal term. These days, especially in Britain and Commonwealth countries, we think of a kettle as a small enclosed container with a handle and spout for boiling water to make our tea. (I believe that Americans are less familiar with this essential item of kitchenware.) In the eighteenth century, though, a kettle was any large vessel used to boil stuff in.

There was, it seems, a custom by which the gentry on the Scottish border with England would hold a picnic (though that term was not then known) by a river. The custom was described by Thomas Newte in his Tour of England and Scotland in 1785: “It is customary for the gentlemen who live near the Tweed to entertain their neighbours and friends with a Fete Champetre, which they call giving ‘a kettle of fish’. Tents or marquees are pitched near the flowery banks of the river ... a fire is kindled, and live salmon thrown into boiling kettles”.

Answer 3

"fine kettle of fish -- A kiddle or kiddle net is a basket set in the sluice ways of dams to catch fish, a device well known from the time of the Plantagenets. Royal officers had the perquisite to trap fish in kiddles, but poachers often raided the traps of fish, frequently destroying the kiddles in the process. Possibly an official came upon a destroyed trap and exclaimed, 'That's a pretty kiddle of fish!' or something similar, meaning 'a pretty sorry state of affairs!' and the phrase was born. Repeated over the years, kiddle was corrupted in everyday speech to kettle, giving us the expression as we know it today."

Answer 4

it comes from when a family went on holiday, and they had two kettles in their house, when they came home, fish were living in both of the kettles

Answer 5

a kettle was the container that held fish as they were unloaded from the fishing boats and sold in years gone by.
a different kettle of fish would then mean; a container of fish from another boat or of different fish eg. cod/ skate etc

Answer 6

same place as " thats the pot calling the kettle black"

god knows!!

Answer 7

Try sillydomainname.co.uk

Answer 8

You sound like you have an australian accent..its cattle man