fish out of water

• Earliest recorded uses: "fish out of the water" (1585, Lamentable Complaint of Commonality), "Fishes out of the Water" (1613, Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage).^[1]
• Earliest use of metaphor by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales: Prologue (c. 1405) as "fissh þ^t is waterlees".^[1]

Compare also the antonymous French comme un poisson dans l’eau, German wie ein Fisch im Wasser.

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fish out of water (plural fishes out of water or fish out of water)

1. (idiomatic) A person in unfamiliar and often uncomfortable surroundings.

   Synonym: square peg in a round hole

   • 1921, Edgar Wallace, chapter 2, in The Book of All-Power:

     [I]nto this queer assembly, something of a fish out of water and wholly out of his element, strode Cherry Bim, that redoubtable man.

   • 1942 May 25, “Sport: Pitcher Hits Ball”, in Time, retrieved 2 October 2016:

     A pitcher at bat is usually considered such a fish out of water that he is expected to foul, ground or strike out.

   • 1990 September 17, Larry Rohter, quoting Quincy Jones, “‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ Puts Rap in Mainstream”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “The basis of this show is fish out of water,” said the executive producer, Quincy Jones, the music impresario who has never before put his name on a television series but whose work as producer of Michael Jackson's albums won him respect in Hollywood as a canny judge of public tastes.

   • 2004 December 22, Jennifer Medina, “Housewives, Try This for Desperation”, in New York Times, retrieved 2 October 2016:

     Many stay-at-home fathers find that they are fish out of water, too.