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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Below is an instance in 1815 in which a writer describes two political
doctrines that he believes conflict. He then states: ["It is very like
a whale" to pretend to believe both]. Perhaps the phrase here means:
It is very implausible, or it is very deceptive.

Periodical: Niles' Weekly Register
Date: July 1, 1815
Article: School Books
Database: Google Books Full View

http://bit.ly/1vEOCc7

http://books.google.com/books?id=gJE-AAAAYAAJ&q=%22like+a+whale%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
But, softly, gentlemen--I tell you plainly that it is just "as
possible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle" as for a man
that believes in the "divine authority" of kings, to subscribe to the
doctrine that all authority is derived from the people. "It is very
like a whale" to pretend to believe both: And yet it is fashionable.
You can hardly take up a jacobin newspaper without seeing both
subjects spoken of in the same column.
[End excerpt]


On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> 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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