More suspicious, questionable, or resembling fish in smell or quality.
Comparative form of 'fishy' (from 'fish' + adjective suffix '-y'), which originally meant literally smelling of fish but evolved to mean suspicious by the 1800s, possibly because fishy smells were unpleasant and deceptive.
The slang meaning 'suspicious' likely comes from the fact that fish smell is unmistakable and often associated with decay—so something 'fishy' literally and metaphorically suggests something is 'off' or wrong.
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