ProverbWisdom
English origin1580
English origin1580Fish and company stink after three days
Meaning: Prolonged proximity to guests or friends exhausts hospitality and tests patience, necessitating respectful departure.
Origin: Benjamin Franklin printed it in Poor Richard's Almanack (1736) as "Fish and visitors stink in three days," but he was polishing an older line: John Lyly's Euphues and His England (1580) has "Fish and guests in three days are stale." Further back, the Roman playwright Plautus wrote that no guest can avoid becoming tiresome after three days.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, and Polish
French: L'hôte et le poisson en trois jours sont poison (literally: The guest and the fish are poison after three days)
Spanish: El huésped y el pez a los tres días huelen (literally: Guests and fish stink after three days)
Japanese: 長居は無用 (Nagai wa muyō) (literally: A long stay is uncalled for)
German: Der Gast ist wie der Fisch, er bleibt nicht lange frisch (literally: The guest is like the fish, he does not stay fresh for long)
Italian: L'ospite è come il pesce: dopo tre giorni puzza (literally: A guest is like fish: after three days it stinks)
Polish: Gość i ryba trzeciego dnia cuchnie (literally: A guest and a fish stink on the third day)
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