I'm new to Wordsmith Talk, so please forgive my ignorance and inform/redirect me if this subject isn't new.

The phrase "last gasp of a dying fish" recently entered my mind.

I Googled the phrase (using the quotes) and got many verbatim hits, but what I didn't find was any clue as to the origin of the phrase.

Seems to me such phrases (and there are likely many more) form kinds of meta-words, and at least in this case they seem to contain similar but smaller phrases within: "last gasp" and "dying fish".