Etymology

neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring

Today it means: Synonym of neither fish nor fowl (“not easily categorized; not rightly belonging or fitting well in a given group or situation; also, not having the advantages of the various options”). Full definition →

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The story

The three foods are metonyms for those things suitable to each of medieval society’s classes of people; fish represents the clergy, flesh represents commoners, whilst red herring represents paupers; the three classes are simplistically regarded as exhaustive.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.