Oh ...huh ...her comes professor dr Paul the bad one,
the expression Fishwife aka talking as fishwifes gossiping as fishwifes is a standing expression as well in Flemish, I think the Netherlands as in UK.
It goes back to the time that in harbours the man did the fishing and the wifes of the fisherman went out to sell the fish. In this ages there was NO WAY to have a freezer or ice to carry along. So if you went out to sell your fish it had to be done VERY quick!! The quickest way to sell the fish was talking, clamping people in the street and try to sell your fish. Talking as fishwifes means ...talk a lot. It is not necessarly gossiping but means a lot of talking about nothing much.
Also yelling, hard, long when you walk the streets would do the trick. So having a voice as a fishwife means a HARD, HARSH and LOUD voice.
Thank you for your attention
Paul the bad one
BTW: if you ever wondered where the tradition comes from to add drops of fresh lemon-juice with fish?
The former story indicates that it coudl take some time before the fish was sold. So to mask the oh ...huh ....lesser good taste of the too far gone fish you add ... right!
(Message edited by palembic on May 01, 2004)
