odd fish

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

A person who is eccentric or odd in his manners. The Knickerbocker Magazine, in a sketch of a learned professor of Tinnecum, says:


He was styled unanimously an odd fish, by those who knew him; nor did his appearance belie him, as he started forth on a geological excursion, making poems and tuning pianos by the way. On another occasion he won a foot race on the Union course for a hundred dollars, to enable him to pursue his studies for the ministry.--Vol. VI. p. 551.

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