lookforuu Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Right now I could just think of one, which is 'more fish in the sea', not sure if it's an idiom though, but it surely exists in English, hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguaholic Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 hehe sounds funny. What is it supposed to mean? Could you make an example please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ersatz Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 The usual phrase is, "There's plenty more fish in the sea." It's usually used to cheer up people who are having a hard time dating/have recently ended a relationship, so they're consoled. It means something like, "You found one person, you'll find another one -- there's lots of people out there to meet." Why, exactly, we describe romance in terms of fish is beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookforuu Posted August 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 Yea, it's quite often used to cheer up someone who breaks up from a relationship, hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguaholic Posted August 3, 2013 Report Share Posted August 3, 2013 oh I got that now...but why fish are used metaphorically to describe this...I also don't know to be honest :=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xara Posted August 7, 2013 Report Share Posted August 7, 2013 Sure, there's plenty of fish in the sea. But there's also sharks, seaweed & toxic waste! :grin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWL Posted August 10, 2013 Report Share Posted August 10, 2013 This one uses the metaphor of there being plenty of fishes in the sea (good and bad ones) but what it means it that for one who has lost a chance at finding love, there is no need to worry because the world is a big place with lots of potential partners out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Believeinsomething Posted August 14, 2013 Report Share Posted August 14, 2013 Yes, and if you can visualize how many fish are in the sea... it's easier to accept there are a lot more potential partners out there.Along the same line, we often say "better throw that one back", meaning it is not a good match or there is something wrong with that person and it is time to move on.There are a lot of sayings we use when it comes to relationships and fish. "He's a good catch." "That one got away." and "I'm hooked." are some others which come to mind.Wow, I'll stop here, but there are a lot more out there. People and fish... I guess dating is a lot like fishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
writestuff13 Posted August 16, 2013 Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 Good point about the other fishing-related expressions... I never realized that before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czarownica Posted August 16, 2013 Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 Yes, and if you can visualize how many fish are in the sea... it's easier to accept there are a lot more potential partners out there.Along the same line, we often say "better throw that one back", meaning it is not a good match or there is something wrong with that person and it is time to move on.There are a lot of sayings we use when it comes to relationships and fish. "He's a good catch." "That one got away." and "I'm hooked." are some others which come to mind.Wow, I'll stop here, but there are a lot more out there. People and fish... I guess dating is a lot like fishing.That's actually something linguists call the conceptual metaphor. A conceptual metaphor is when you understand one idea in terms of another. You have two domains, source domain and target domain. In this case, the metaphor would be "relationships are fishing" (the conceptual metaphor is presented as a sentence "X is Y") - relationships is target domain, while fishing is the source domain. Hopefully I'm not going too offtopic, but I think it's pretty interesting Wikipedia has a pretty decent article on it, if anybody's interested in that - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguaholic Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 and the conceptual metatphor brings us to the incredible work of George Lakoff & Mark Johnson: "Metaphors we live by". If you have a deep interest in metaphors, you will need to read this. It is like the holy grail in literature about metaphors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcgamer Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 When my GF broke up with me, my cousion said, there is more fish in the sea. She was just being a bitc*. This is the perfect example of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitkat0124 Posted August 25, 2013 Report Share Posted August 25, 2013 It just mean that you ex bf/gf is not the only one, and you have a huge selection of better people around. Usually people use it to comfort someone after losing a gf/bf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinderr Posted September 9, 2013 Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 "More fish in the sea" means there are other lovers/girlfriends/whatever out there for you--this will not be your only love affair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trellum Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 I always say the same thing when a friend of mine or relative breaks up with someone or is having a hard time finding someone. My mom used to tell me that when I was single It worked, I must admit, I felt a bit better after hearing that. All that is in the past now, because I really think I've found the man I might spend the rest of my days with (I hope so, but you never really know!). I'm glad I'm not longer on the dating scene anymore... there are plenty of fish, but many of those fishies are not for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashwinr1 Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 The reason for comparison with fish is generally fishes are found in large groups and are used to denote large numbers. My friend used to comically say "For a person committed to a relationship, there is just one fish in the sea whereas for a non-committed person there are lot more fishes in the sea" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghanashyam Posted September 25, 2013 Report Share Posted September 25, 2013 Right now I could just think of one, which is 'more fish in the sea', not sure if it's an idiom though, but it surely exists in English, hehe.It is here in India said like this, " There are plenty fish in pond.", a perfect idiom to quote to a person who has lost his love bird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pftsusan Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 This means that if you breakup your relationship that there is more people out there for you to choose from. You can still find Mister or Misses right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowbird Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 This is the opposite situation and not completely related, but it makes me laugh. ^^http://quicklol.com/plenty-more-fish-in-the-sea/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
writeletters Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 "There are plenty more fish in the sea," is a phrase which is told to people who face breakups. It means there will always be someone else you can date, so to speak. There are always more people to meet, more places to go, that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottman Posted November 7, 2013 Report Share Posted November 7, 2013 More fish in the sea addresses the hurt of a relationship not working out with one person. While it feels like they're the only ones that matter, you'll realize over time there are many others just as good and important as that one person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dame6089 Posted November 11, 2013 Report Share Posted November 11, 2013 Does anyone know the origin of this? Is it recent aka 1900s or is it something that has been around for centuries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandandesign Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 I have heard this phrase often, which I have heard from my customers at my workplace. I think the definition would be someone who has undergone a major breakup, which is told by other people me aning there are more than one girl in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraM Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Does anyone know the origin of this? Is it recent aka 1900s or is it something that has been around for centuries.It's actually quite old. There are examples of the phrase and similar phrases echoing the same basic concept dating back to the 1800s in literature. In recent years, the use of the phrase has been more focused on romance and finding romance and being without a partner and realizing -- or more likely being reassured by others -- that despite the sudden loss there are other opportunities and other people i.e. "more fish in the sea." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizbeth19hph Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 The usual phrase is, "There's plenty more fish in the sea." It's usually used to cheer up people who are having a hard time dating/have recently ended a relationship, so they're consoled. It means something like, "You found one person, you'll find another one -- there's lots of people out there to meet." Why, exactly, we describe romance in terms of fish is beyond me.The proper idiomatic phrase should be "There's plenty of fish in the sea." connoting a lot of better ones out there for you if you have failed in a relationship or was rejected by someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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