red herring

[red her-ing]

noun

1. a smoked herring.

2. something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue.

3. Also called red-herring prospectus. Finance.,  a tentative prospectus circulated by the underwriters of a new issue of stocks or bonds that is pending approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: so called because the front cover of such a prospectus must carry a special notice printed in red.

4. any similar tentative financial prospectus, as one concerning a pending or proposed sale of cooperative or condominium apartments.

red herring

noun

1. anything that diverts attention from a topic or line of inquiry

2. a herring cured by salting and smoking

red herring

1. In argument, something designed to divert an opponent's attention from the central issue. If a herring is dragged across a trail that hounds are following, it throws them off the scent.

Word History and Origins

Origin of red herring¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English

Idioms and Phrases

Something that draws attention away from the central issue, as in Talking about the new plant is a red herring to keep us from learning about downsizing plans. The herring in this expression is red and strong-smelling from being preserved by smoking. The idiom alludes to dragging a smoked herring across a trail to cover up the scent and throw off tracking dogs. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

I’d call the opening murder a red herring except it’s really more like a fish left to cook in the blinding Bakersfield sun.

From Los Angeles Times

Kim, the deputy director of North Korea's propaganda department, said Seoul's claim was an "unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring".

From BBC

"The initial narrative has proven a bit of a red herring," said Mill Pond Research's Caen.

From BBC

“There were a lot more dead ends and red herrings that would bog down readers,” Hogan observes.

From Los Angeles Times

“It’s a red herring to distract from the evidence that matters: witness interview notes, videos, photos, etc.”

From Salon

Related Words

• ploy 
• smokescreen www.thesaurus.com

When To Use

Where does red herring come from?

A herring is a type of silvery fish. So how did a red herring become an expression for something that throws a detective off their track?Herring swim in vast schools and are an important source of food in many cultures. When dried and smoked, they turn a reddish color, hence the name red herring. This literal sense of the term is old, dating back to the late 1300s.Now, it’s often said that the figurative red herring—referring to a distraction from a matter at hand or a misleading clue—comes from historic uses of the fish to make hounds lose their scent while hunting.As one account goes, hunters would drag red herring along the ground to train hounds to follow a scent. Then, the hunters would introduce the hounds to the scent of another animal, such as a badger. The hounds were supposed to follow the scent of the badger and not be distracted by the red herring, apparently as a way of teaching the dogs to stay focused on their trail—or as a way for escaped criminals to throw off hounds chasing them down.There is definitely record that red herring were used in hunting. In 1599, English writer Thomas Nashe wrote about how the skin of a red herring was used to train hounds to follow a scent. And a 1697 work on horsemanship noted how a red herring could be used to train horses to follow hounds amid the chaos of a hunt.But these early instances talk about how red herring was used to coach—not confuse—animals. What gives? English journalist William Cobbett.Cobbett was a vocal critic of England’s government and press. In a February 14, 1807, edition of his weekly publication, Political Register, Cobbett told an apparently made-up story about how, when he was boy, they used to drag red herrings on strings to distract dogs sent on hares in their property. He then used this story as an analogy to how he felt the English press was, at that time, spreading false news about the defeat of Napoleon as “a political red herring,” designed to distract people from more important matters at home.