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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Green around the gills ... meaning someone looks slightly ill and like they're gonna' faint. That is how I have always used it.
Looked and looked and looked but even the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has no info.
Have you heard it?
Most Importantly did you understand it when you read the header for the post?
Any thoughts at all?
wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think I have heard it describe nausea or impending sea-sickness.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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The phrase is quite familiar to me, particularly in the context of telling someone that don't look like they're feeling very well, but I've no idea of its origin.
Perhaps it has something to do with the way fish look when they have ick and are about to take a one-way trip down the porcelain highway? Or three days afterward, when they're floating half-eaten in the tank? They always seem to take on a bit of a greenish hue at that point.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I found several sites mentioning the phrase. http://www.cavemansportfishing.com/diana_article.htmShe often helps seasick-prone fishermen who board Hooked Up-the couple's SO-foot Carolina Classic boat-by offering nausea prevention tips to keep them from becoming green around the gills
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newbie
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newbie
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Ho yus. Very popular in this part of the manor, squire.  I've used the phrase all my life - exactly as you describe. I'd always assumed the "gills" bit referred to the jawline/neck area.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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agreeing with Yoda and wow: a familiar and perfectly common phrase within my experience; I too have used it all my life.
agreeing with wwh: I understand it to refer to nausea, from seasickness or otherwise, but in the immediate sense: not just queasy, but seconds away from upchuck. Would not use it to refer to other illness such as a cold, a cough, or a fainting spell.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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old hand
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old hand
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I reckon it must've started out as a term used by seafarers as it is almost always used in relation to sea sickness - by people with caucasion complexions.
Went deep sea fishing off Perth last December. One guy was really feeling the swell - went truly green around the gills. First time I'd seen such a classic example - would've laughed but figured, but for the grace of god there go I.
PS Caught one lousy scorpion fish all day. NOT worth the A$100 for the trip. Did however see a whale, that sort of made up for it. Heaps of them off the coast these days.
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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yep, a familiar one for me too, though I am more familiar with the variant that Wordwind noted.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wordwind has heard "green about the gills" instead of "green around the gills."
Ah, the vagaries of prepositions. And we wonder why ESL students have problems with them.
Example:
Do you stand in line or stand on line?
And, if you used to do the latter, have you changed to the former because on line means something toatally else in the computer age?
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