THE HERRING IS RED! PART 2

THAT THIS ETYMOLOGICAL RESEARCH emanates from a Sam Spade adventure that’s 78 years old suggests my questionable priorities of time allotment. In any case, here in Part 2 we brings matters more or less up to date.

My Own Etymological Research. I wondered if other languages might share similar views on distracting one from something or other. Google Translate gave me my first encouragement: The English phrase “red herring” yielded the Latin “falsa pista.” 

“Falsa” I recognize. And an Italian word for race circuit is “pista.” Thus, a “false track.” 

What a good start.

What about other languages? Google Translate offers several direct translations: Afrikaan rooi haring. Danish rød sild. Dutch rode haring. French hereng rouge. 

And then there’s the English red herring to German Ablenkungsmanöver. The latter reverse-translates into “distraction maneuver.”

Now we’re um auf den Punkt zu kommen.

What About Lithuanian? Lithuanian raudonoji silkė is literally the English red herring. But, curiously, it reverse-translates into German Ablenkungsmanöver and also into Spanish pista falsa. 

Just what’s going on here with „Google“ vertėjas?

And Japanese? For a change of approach, let’s try Google A.I. Overview on Japanese, a language with which I have a barely passing familiarity. I say, “Sucoshi nihongo hanashimasu, kedo jouzu ja arimasen.” Sorta, “I speak a little Japanese, but not proficiently” to which my Japanese listeners politely (and invariably) reply, “Ei, ei, jouzu desu.”

I asked Google A.I. Overview for a “Japanese term equivalent to English ‘red herring.’” Its responses were coherent and useful: Briefly, 偽の手がかり (nise no tegakari) translates literally to “false clue.” ミスディレクション (misudirekushon) is an English loanword and heavily used in Japanese anime, manga, and mystery fiction to describe a red herring. ミスリード (misurīdo) is another, literally meaning “mislead.” It is the most common term in Japanese for narrative misdirection or red herrings. Also, because Western mystery tropes are popular in Japan, the katakana レッド·ヘリング (reddo heringu) is fully understood as well.

There’s even a formal, literary academic 燻製ニシンの虚偽 (kunsei nishin no kyogi), meaning “the fallacy of the smoked herring.”

Google Translate’s Attempt At It: English “red herring” prompted the Japanese ミスヘリング (misuheringu). But, puzzlingly enough, English “red” alone yields 赤 (aka). And a reverse-translation of ミスヘリング yields “Miss Haring.”

This is perhaps expected of misuheringu, but who is Miss Haring?? Translating ミスヘリング to German yields Fräulein Haring. And, you guessed it, going to French gives us Mille Haring; to Italian, La signorina Haring. 

Whoever is this mysterious young lady? Perhaps she’s just a red herring?

On Rhetorical Political Red Herrings. Thus far, I’ve focused on red herrings in the literary sense, but what of their rhetorical and political use. This is when someone deliberately shifts the topic or uses a false point to distract from the real issue.

Hmm… Does this remind you of anyone?

Like starting a war to distract from matters of a convicted sex offender who ran an operation involving underage girls? Or coming up with national “emergencies” to mask one’s real intent. Or ascribing to others the inherent faults that one so abundantly displays.  

All in good etymological fun. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026