Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 124. The noun phrase today is "cold
fish. " Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If we call someone a call fish, he
or she seems like an unresponsive hard-hearted you know, not having a soft
heart a hard-hearted, unfeeling person.We would use this term, especially for
someone lacking emotion in situations where we would expect them to show their
emotions or to show a lot of emotions. In this case, we might call or say that
somebody is a cold fish. Okay. There is a second meaning here too. It could all also
have a second meaning as an unresponsive, unemotional, sexual partner. Okay. So let's
let's continue. The origin of this noun phrase comes from a Shakespeare play, "The
Winter's Tale. " Here is the exact quote from the play. "It was thought she was a
woman and turned into a cold fish. All right. So this is from one of
Shakespeare's plays, plays They say this phrase started to become more
popular in the 1900s. Yeah. It could happen that way sometimes with
Shakespeare because you know he's a classic you know, playwright. So sometimes
you know , people study them over the years. It may be just one phrase from one
particular play, just might take off at some point. So even though, he wrote that
maybe several hundred years before, it started to become more popular in the
1900s. Anyway, let's look at four examples we have here. Here is the first example That
blind date you set me up with was a real cold fish. The whole date was very
uncomfortable. Yeah. So this could go either way. The guy or the girl maybe
they thought that the other person was very unresponsive. You know, not , not very
emotional at all. You know probably pretty boring in this
sense. All right number two. Some people who met the Queen in person said she was a
cold fish. Okay. It could be any queen. Number three. He
has no sympathy for their pain. He is a real cold fish. So this is another
situation where you expect someone to have sympathy for them. But he doesn't. So
you might refer to him as a cold fish. And the last one. When he tried to get
romantic with her, she acted like a cold fish. Well, maybe she decided she didn't
like him at that point. Anyway, I hope you got it. I
hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.