As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, my wife and I have watched a lot of British police procedurals, so we’re familiar with the slang phrase stitch up, defined by Green (sense 3) as “(UK Und./police) of the police, to incriminate a person in order to ensure a conviction by planting evidence, faking confessions etc.; also in non-police use” (first citation 1970 [UK] G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 127: Your confederate has just about stitched you up). My wife asked me what the underlying metaphor was: stitching someone into a bag? Green doesn’t say explicitly (though under the general heading stitch up v. he has the bracketed [sewing up a garment neatly and conclusively]), but I found a discussion at the Stack Exchange English Language & Usage site; the question is specifically about “stitched up like a kipper,” so the answer that seems most useful starts with the kipper:
I’m not convinced it’s a “mixture of similes”. I can’t find any relevant references to like a kipper prior to about 1970, and I think when it did come in about then, it started as South London slang.
So I’m inclined to credit the explanation given here, that it’s a reference to the the extra wide tie called the ‘kipper’ that became popular around then. Thus called partly because the original designer was Michael Fish, and partly because of the tie’s shape.
On the metaphorical allusion to kippers the foodstuff, I’d note that they’re pretty unrecognisable as “fish” once they’ve been split and smoked. They’ve been well and truly done over.
Also note that to have a stitch on someone was (now obsolete) British slang for to bear a grudge. Which is probably where the later slang stitch someone up came from (it means to “frame” someone – falsely make it appear they’re guilty).
OP’s more general definition (to trick someone) is increasingly common lately, but I think with or without “kipper”, most usages still relate to being (usually falsely) made to appear guilty.
Does that seem plausible to others? And is anyone familiar with the ‘bear a grudge’ usage?
I don’t believe the kipper tie has anything to do with Michael Fish. In early-20th century Palestine, דָּג מָלוּחַ dag maluach ‘salted fish’ was used as a jokey term for ‘necktie’, supposedly influenced by Russian селёдка. I’m sure the similarity has struck various people independently.
“Stitch up”, in the sense “falsely incriminate” is entirely familiar to me, and, I imagine, to all Brits. I’ve never come across it the sense “trick.”
“Stitch up” is used quite often in the Australian TV series Deadloch—especially in series 2—meaning especially one of the first two of these definitions given in Wiktionary:
In Modern Hebrew, litpor/litfor tik ‘to sew a (legal) case’ means ‘to incriminate unjustly, especially through false evidence’, which I think of as implying something custom-sewn to fit. It’s come up infinitely over the past decade in right-wing circles, where BN’s trial is presented as persecution.
Evidently this “stitching up” of which the Saeson speak is but a confused echo of the fate of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwawl
[Pwyll, despite his actual name meaning “intelligence”, has to be helped out of the hole he’s dug for himself by Rhiannon. Just saying …]
+1 to what @DE wrote @6:09 pm.
I have heard ‘stitched up like a kipper’, but not usually. I’m unconvinced there’s anything original about the kipper. (And Green’s has diverse slang uses for ‘kipper’, including gorblimey rhyming cockney (probably fake); I think it’s just a humorous/vaguely smutty add-on.)
(Hadn’t heard of Fish the designer. The name for me means the weather forecaster/hurricane guy. I’d better confess to once having owned a wide, floral tie; though never called it ‘kipper’.)
I’m told British people used to say that Noddy Holder, lead singer of the band Slade, liked a nice kipper tie. White, with four sugars.
Edit: It’s apparently relevant that he was from Walsall, in Staffordshire.
In Modern Hebrew, litpor/litfor tik ‘to sew a (legal) case’ means ‘to incriminate unjustly, especially through false evidence’, which I think of as implying something custom-sewn to fit. It’s come up infinitely over the past decade in right-wing circles, where BN’s trial is presented as persecution.
I assume that’s a calque of Russian шить дело with the same meaning. My understanding is that the Russian metaphor goes back to files being stitched together (прошитые) for official use or archiving. Maybe a similar practice is also behind the English expression?
Hans is correct (as usual) about the Russian expression, but the source is not so obvious. Another expression with the same meaning is пришить дело [attach (by sewing) a case]. Which obviously cannot be interpreted literally. It’s possible that шить дело comes from the bureaucratic practice and than people forgot about the source and decided that it must mean to attach someone to the case as an imperfect but most plausible explanation. It’s also possible to пришить not only the whole case but some evidence as well.
As for the source of Hebrew idiom, Y can answer better than me, but litpor/litfor does mean “fit” or something like “be a good match” in general. Seems like a better candidate. Or, in a usual Hebrew practice, both can be the source.
Rosenthal’s dictionary of Hebrew slang has other usages. tafúr ‘sewn’ can also apply to a supposedly competitive bid or a job posting, whose winner is predetermined. ‘To sew someone a suit [khalifá]’ has the same meaning as to ‘sew a file’ for someone, i.e. incriminate someone by fitting the evidence to obtain the desired conviction.
i think the semantic core of all these is shared, and is something like “constructed to fit the desired result” / “tailor-made”*.
.
* though of course the opposite of “tailormade” in its cigarette sense of mass-produced rather than hand-rolled oneself.
@rozele
I am surprised you did not mention naaien 😊. Beside the “fitted” sense in these expressions there may be a sense of “finished off” as in English “sewn up” / German “zugenäht”
I remember seeing some massive but supposedly false accusation described as “the biggest stitch-up since the Bayeux tapestry”. Can anyone remember what that was about?
I (Brit, late-boomer) am quite unfamiliar with the bear-a-grudge meaning.
David Pope, letter to the Guardian, 21 Feb 2000:
Of course, BoJo stole that line as he did so many others.
I didn’t know that sense in German.
What I do know, from reading, is the rather random sense in verflixt und zugenäht “damnit!”.
Clearly borrowed from Kusaal naae “finish.”
a sense of “finished off” as in English “sewn up” / German “zugenäht”
I didn’t know that sense in German.
Me neither. @PP: Where did you find that?
What I do know, from reading, is the rather random sense in verflixt und zugenäht “damnit!”.
Yes, same here – I also know this oath from reading and from scripted speech like in TV dramas. I don’t think I ever heard it in the wild.
@hans, dm
I only also knew the curse but supposed it was ex literal “sewn shut”, so you are right, not “finished off”. Is this literally “sewn shut”?
“damnit!”
It’s written as “dammit”. Always, except in this thread. Pfui Teufel.
One explanation of verflixt und zugenäht:
#
Ich habe eine Liebste, die ist wunderschön,
sie zeigt mir ihre Äpfelchen, da ist’s um mich gescheh’n.
Doch als mir meine Liebste der Liebe Frucht gesteht,
da hab’ ich meinen Hosenlatz verflucht und zugenäht.
#
It’s more entertaining than the other “theory” presented there. Etymological fables should be entertaining, not merely instructive and edifying.
I only also knew the curse but supposed it was ex literal “sewn shut”, so you are right, not “finished off”. Is this literally “sewn shut”?
Probably. At least I don’t know of any use where it means “finished off”.
Come to think of it, Kusaal naae “finish” is presumably cognate with Mooré náagè, Farafare náagɛ́ “join together” (the formal match is exact), so the semantic shift is pretty much the same as with German nähen.
I’ve always assumed “stitched up” came from being sewn into one’s shroud for burial. And since seeing the movie Master & Commander, my mental image is of the sailors sewing their dead comrades into sails for burial at sea, post-battle.
Come to think of it, Kusaal naae “finish” is presumably cognate with Mooré náagè, Farafare náagɛ́ “join together” (the formal match is exact), so the semantic shift is pretty much the same as with German nähen
Um, the thing is that nähen does not mean “finish”,
Historically it can’t have meant “finish”, because sewing was women’s work and a woman’s work is never done.
People are being misled by English expressions such as “sew up the negotiations”, which is actually a bit old-fashioned as well. nähen is simply not used like that, in that sense, neither as a trope nor on standby as a metaphor waiting in the wings. End of story.
Thanks, stu. What can I say but post in haste, repent at leisure? 😊
PP: thanks for the opportunity to stamp my little feets and set people to rights ! Don’t get much chance nowadays, people seem to be worrying about more important things, such as whether Mitch is dead.
Back in my day, it was Paul.
“Here’s another clue for you, bitch / The walrus was Mitch.”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/04/silent/
Y: “stitching a suit” in that sense is incredibly rare these days, if it ever even had any dominance. By and large לתפור חליפות means to prepare for a likely outcome before it has been verified, most commonly used during election season where the party head leading in the polls starts offering cabinet positions to prospective coalition members.
I’m a Brit and have never heard the “bear a grudge” meaning. Perhaps it’s very, very regional (and archaic)?
I agree with Rozele: “i think the semantic core of all these is shared, and is something like “constructed to fit the desired result” / “tailor-made”*.”
On first thinking I didn’t think I had heard the phrase in relation to “tricking”, but now I think about it more, it is very familiar. Example: A group of stag-night lads “stitching up” the stag by convincing him that an attractive woman is very interested in him, he approaches her, and she wants nothing to do with him and, in fact, hasn’t even noticed him. Trick! He has been royally “stitched up”, and serves him right.
Serves him right indeed! And I agree that rozele’s suggestion makes sense.
Thanks, Yuval. I’ve never encountered that expression outside of Rosenthal’s dictionary.
Your usage sounds somewhat but not quite like the AmE “start measuring the curtains”.
OED has earlier “sew up” (not revised from OED2 yet), with the sense “To tire out, exhaust (a person); to nonplus, bring to a standstill; to put hors de combat; to outwit, cheat, swindle; also, to bring about the conviction of (a person).” With citations for “bring about a conviction” from 1927 (Dialect Notes), 1929 (Hammett, “Red Harvest”), and 1945 (ES Gardner, “The Case of the Gold-digger’s Purse”).
The the “convict via fabricated evidence” is absent, but it’s not a big leap, either.
Interestingly, Green also has “sew up”, but as “to bring about the conviction of someone (through fabricated evidence).” He uses the same Dialect Notes citation as the OED, but I don’t think it supports this sense: “‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Sew up, To convict on overwhelming evidence.” (His other citation is from NZ, and does specify fabrication.)
Hatticly and serendipitously, I only thought to look up “sew up” because I am reading The Master and Margarita, and just last night, Ivan was in the mental hospital thinking “They’ve got it all sewn up.”
the “convict via fabricated evidence” is absent, but it’s not a big leap, either.
Very true, and a good find.
Y: Yes, that’s exactly what that is. The first result from the NLI news archive demonstrates it nicely.