鲱鱼与珠宝窃贼的故事

Now, Words and Their Stories, a program from VOA Learning English. On this show, we try to explain common expressions used in American English.

Today, we talk about a small, silvery fish, called herring. In some places, herring is a popular food.

In the United States, herring is also part of a curious expression. We call unimportant information that is used to distract a red herring.

For example, mystery writers often use red herrings as plot devices. In her book The Sittaford Mystery, writer Agatha Christie gives many characters a reason for killing the rich Captain Trevelyan.

But those reasons turn out to be red herrings. Christie used them to throw the reader off the scent of the real killer.

In a mystery, a red herring is something the writer presents as a clue, but actually isn't. Mysteries aren't the only places that use red herrings.

People who work in government or write about politics also commonly use this expression. Politicians are sometimes guilty of drawing people's attention away from serious issues

by throwing out red herrings that they know will get a reaction. People also criticize the media for creating red herrings,

reports that are used to purposefully distract readers from more important issues. As you can see, the expression red herring is useful . . . but it is odd. How did herring turn red?

And why does it mean something that is purposefully misleading? The first part, about the color, is easy to answer.