"whale" = something improbable; cock-and-bull story; falsehood, circa 1700?

[Dan Goncharoff]

Wasn't that by WAG (whale = improbable) when you brought up the example
of "Whale [and ghost printer]" in 1707 about a month ago?

DanG

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "whale" = something improbable; cock-and-bull story;
> falsehood,
>               circa 1700?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does anyone have evidence of the use of "whale" to mean something
> improbable; cock-and-bull story; falsehood, in the period between
> c1600 and 1859, particularly around 1700?
>
> c1600 -- A colleague provides the following for "Hamlet":
>
> "Very like a whale.  Very much like a cock-and-bull story; a fudge.
> Hamlet chaffs Polonius by comparing a cloud to a camel, and then to a
> weasel, and when the courtier assents Hamlet adds, "or like a whale";
> to which Polonius answers, "Very like a whale." (Act iii. 2.)"
>
> [The next line is "Hamlet:  Then I will come to my mother by and
> by.  [Aside] They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and
> by."  That is, Hamlet sees the cloud/camel/weasel/whale as an attempt
> at deception.  The OED accepts this interpretation of "very like a
> whale"; see sense 5.a.]
>
> [From] Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Giving the
> Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words
> That Have a Tale to Tell By the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. New
> Edition Revised, Corrected and Enlarged. To Which is Added a Concise
> Bibliography of English Literature. 105th Thousand. New York: The
> Cassell Publishing Co. 31. East 17th Street, [1894].
>
> 1859 -- J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang 115   Very like a whale, said of
> anything that is very improbable. [OED]
>
> Joel
>
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