Defining Moments: Red Herring

Q: Why are attempts at misdirection called "Red Herrings?"

A: The term comes from the English sport of fox hunting.

Fox hounds, obviously, are kept on the trail of a fox by their sense of smell. To give the foxes more of a sporting chance, and to separate the truly great hunting dogs from the mediocre, it sometimes was the practice of fox hunters to drag a smoked red herring, a fish with an extremely strong (some would say malodorous) smell, across various trails near to where the hunting was to take place. The lesser dogs would be thrown off the trail of the fox by the strong smell of the red herring.

So intentional attempts at misdirection in literature, law, politics, philosophy, and daily life, have come to be known as "red herrings."