The “red herring”: a term that means something distracting or misleading, thrown out to pull attention away from the real issue.
In mystery novels, it’s a plot device that leads readers toward the wrong suspect—for instance, cigarette butts at a murder scene that seem to implicate the chain‑smoking business partner but were actually planted by the mousy ex‑wife, the real killer. In politics, a legislator might introduce a bill that lowers unemployment rates to draw attention away from the bill that called for a tax hike. And in a dog show conformation ring, a talented groomer might exaggerate a dog’s coat to distract the judge’s eye from a structural fault. The teased coat is a red herring.
Lest you think a show ring is the only place the term might find a home, you might be surprised to learn that the term has its origins in dogs.
Though modern etymologists now debate the idea’s historical accuracy, many other sources (including Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, a BBC‑affiliated article on HistoryExtra, and UncoverWords.com) hold that in organized foxhunting, laying false or contaminated scent trails helped prolong the chase, making the hunt more challenging and entertaining rather than ending quickly. Strong-smelling smoked herring could break or confuse the scent line, forcing hounds to work harder and demonstrating their skill. False scents were also said to be used deliberately in training young hounds by teaching them to ignore irrelevant odors, disregard false trails, stay true to their quarry, and recover a lost trail—an essential ability known as casting.
Misleading scent trails were also used by fugitives to escape Bloodhounds, and by poachers to evade estate dogs such as Bullmastiffs.
Ultimately, we can look to scent hounds for the term red herring in which it isn’t a metaphor but a historical training tool designed to test the very trait for which the breeds exist.
As an aside, fresh Atlantic herrings aren’t red, but silvery colored with blue-green backs. Herring that are heavily salted, cured, and smoked turns the flesh reddish-brown which is how they came to be known in Britain as red herrings.
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