Clichés, used in the English language, are incredibly descriptive ways to convey a meaning without fully explaining yourself. “A fish out of water” is used to describe something/someone who is very out of place or unsuited to the situation. This expression, however useful, is quite old. Chaucer used a version of the cliché in The Tales of Canterbury: Prologue. He compared a monk when cloisterless or with out a quiet place to pray, “is like to a fish that is waterless”. The earliest reference to the modern day wording of the cliché is in Samuel Purchas’s Pilgrimage, dating back to 1613. The expression was created with the idea that a fish cannot survive for a long time on dry land, just like people cannot “survive” under awkward situations.