• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Language / Where does the phrase “codfish aristocracy” come from and What does codfish aristocracy mean?

Where does the phrase “codfish aristocracy” come from and What does codfish aristocracy mean?

April 30, 2020 by Karen Hill

He didn’t coin the term “codfish aristocracy”, but Wallace Irwin neatly expressed its meaning in the first stanza of “Codfish Aristocracy,” which he has given us permission to quote:

Of all the fish that swim or swish
In ocean’s deep autocracy,
There’s none possess such haughtiness
As the codfish aristocracy.

In fact, the name was coined thirty years or more before Irwin was born in 1876.

It originated in Massachusetts to denote a class of nouveau riche who had acquired wealth from the codfishing industry.

George Stimpson in A Book about a Thousand Things (1946) reminds us that John Rowe, a Boston merchant, made a motion in the legislature on March 17, 1784, that “leave be given to hang up the representation of a Codfish in the room where the House sits, as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of the Commonwealth,” a motion that was carried, thus accounting for the painted wooden codfish still hanging in the chamber of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts.

Related Facts

  • How do banks make money off of credit card purchases even when you don’t pay interest?
  • How does the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office determine the cause and time of death from an autopsy?
  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed the World
  • Who Discovered that Ocean Currents affect Global Weather and Why is the Gulf Stream important?
  • Which Explorers First Explored the Continents of the World?
  • How did the United States buy Alaska and When was the Treaty of Cession signed?

Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Where does the expression “Mrs. Grundy” come from and What does Mrs. Grundy mean?
Next Post: Where does the expression “a tin horn gambler (or sport)” come from and What does it mean? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy