fish out of water

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• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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* 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.

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Afrikaans: soos 'n vis op droë grond — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Bulgarian: риба на сухо (riba na suho) — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Catalan: peix fora d'aigua — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Esperanto: fiŝo ekster akvo — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Finnish: kuin kala kuivalla maalla — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• French: poisson hors de l’eau — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• German: wie ein Fisch auf dem Trockenen — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• German: but less common — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• German: more usually sich fremd fühlen — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• German: sich nicht zu Hause fühlen — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Italian: pesce fuor d'acqua — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Japanese: 陸に上がった河童 (oka ni agatta kappa) — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Malay: seperti rusa masuk kampung — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Malay: bagai kerbau terkejut oleh gong — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Malay: tak pernah masuk gelanggang bergung — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Maltese: ħuta barra mill-ilma — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Polish: osoba czująca się nieswojo w nowej sytuacji — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Portuguese: como peixe fora d'água — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings
• Spanish: como pez fuera del agua — a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings