Meaning
A person who seems unfriendly, aloof and unemotional, showing little warmth, enthusiasm or sympathy in dealings with others. Informal and judgmental: it describes perceived emotional coldness of manner, not cruelty or incompetence. Informal and mildly insulting; a comment on manner rather than on ability or morals. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The metaphor plays on fish being cold to the touch and, popularly, cold-blooded and unexpressive. Reference works date the modern idiom surprisingly late: Dictionary.com's etymology note, drawing on Random House, gives a first recording in 1940-45 and says wider use came in the first half of the twentieth century, while American Heritage labels the noun informal without a date. A line in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, about a woman 'turn'd into a cold fish', is sometimes offered as an early sighting, but it belongs to a ballad about a literal transformation and is not the idiom. Assertions that the expression was current in the nineteenth century were not confirmed by the sources checked, so the honest position is: documented from the mid-twentieth century, possibly older.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a bit of a cold fish
- a real cold fish
- something of a cold fish
Usage Examples
- The new director is perfectly polite in meetings but something of a cold fish whenever anyone raises a personal matter.
- Her colleagues assumed she was a cold fish until they saw her organize the fundraiser for the injured machinist.
- He can be a bit of a cold fish at parties, though he is generous to a fault once you know him.