The phrase one man’s meat is another man’s poisson is a humorous variant of the proverb one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
This variant is based on the resemblance between the noun poison and the French noun poisson (pronunciation: [pwasɔ̃]), denoting fish.
—Cf. also the humorous variants one man’s mead is another man’s poison and one man’s Mede is another man’s Persian.
The following quotations illustrate the diversity of reasons for using the phrase one man’s meat is another man’s poisson—those reasons have sometimes been purely jocular, or even totally obscure.
One important motivation, however, has been to contrast flesh-eating with fish-eating in relation to the religious observance of fasting on Fridays and during Lent (i.e., the period of forty weekdays lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday).—Cf. the phrase neither fish nor fowl.
What is interesting, therefore, is that in the phrase one man’s meat is another man’s poisson, the noun meat denotes the flesh of land-animals and of fowl, as opposed to that of fish (denoted by poisson), whereas in the proverb one man’s meat is another man’s poison, the noun meat is used in its original sense of food in general, anything used as nourishment, solid food as opposed to drink.
Incidentally, a French phrase, too, is based on the resemblance between the nouns poisson and poison (French pronunciation: [pwazɔ̃]). This phrase is poisson sans boisson est poison, translating as fish without drink is poison—here, boisson refers to wine.
The earliest occurrences of the phrase one man’s meat is another man’s poisson that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From the Melbourne Punch (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Thursday 25th April 1872:
New Proverbs.
Thyme works wonders—in veal stuffing or mutton broth. Sage reasoning is not so palatable as sage seasoning. The more haste—the better the hasty pudding. One swallow does not always assuage hunger. One man’s meat is another man’s poi(s)son on Fridays. Two blacks will not make one white in oil painting. A friend in need often borrows a shilling. There is nothing like leather, except a tough beef steak. Easy come, easy go, does not always apply to a stolen watch.
2-: From The Golden Mesh, a short story by ‘M. E. W. S.’, published in Appletons’ Journal. A Magazine of General Literature (New York City, New York, USA) of May 1879—the word poisson is in italics in the original text:
“Of all the other guests at my dinner, no other one felt any inconvenience from the fish.”
“That has happened frequently, you know,” said Dr. Launitz. “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poisson, according to the old joke.”
3-: From From the Comics, published in The Aberystwyth Observer, Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire Advertiser, and Merionethshire News (Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales) of Saturday 5th May 1888—reprinted from Funny Folks (London, England):
AXIOMS A LA MODE.
[…]
None are so deaf as those who will not “Hear”—as the politician observed when the applause didn’t come at the proper moment.
One man’s meat is another man’s poisson.
Let the last American stick to his “cobbler.”
4-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Facts and Fancies, published in the Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Monday 8th June 1891:
An excuse for flesh-eating on Friday: one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.
5-: From Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles (London: Jarrold & Sons, 1898), by Ernest Richard Suffling:
I went at dead low tide and gathered some more [ormers] and ate also, but finally came to the conclusion that one good sole was worth a sack of ormers. Still, there is no accounting for taste. Some of the islanders are very fond of ormers; but what is one man’s meat is another’s “poisson.”
6-: From The Sporting Times (London, England) of Saturday 14th May 1904—the use of the phrase is particularly obscure in this text:
“Good-bye to the Derby!” exclaimed Mr. Leopold Rothschild as Kemmy Cannon took up his whip to St. Amant as they passed the bushes.
“Well, the Derby isn’t half over yet is it?” chuckled Mr. Musker to the friends who crowded round him as Madden unbuckled Henry’s girths.
One man’s meat is another man’s poisson—especially at Epsom.
7-: From the St. Albans Weekly Messenger (Saint Albans, Vermont, USA) of Thursday 17th February 1910—the reference is probably to Lent observance; in 1910, Ash Wednesday was on 9th February:
This is the season when what is one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.
8-: From The Essence of Humor, in Little Essays in Literature and Life (New York: The Century Co., 1914), by the U.S. educator and author Richard Burton (1861-1940):
“HE is a fine man and she is very nice, but they have no sense of humor,”—how often you hear the remark. Whenever I do, I secretly wonder just what is meant, and how humor is to be defined. Because, not seldom, on meeting the persons referred to, I find them quite capable of smiling on occasion, and apparently responsive to a joke. It becomes evident that “one man’s meat is another man’s poisson,” as Oliver Herford has it, in this matter of fun.
9-: From the column A Line o’ Type or Two, published in The Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, Illinois, USA) of Wednesday 29th August 1917:
WE ARE RUNNING THIS AGAIN, AS THE PROOFREADER QUEERED IT YESTERDAY. *
Sir: Speaking of meatless days, in New Orleans there is sold a kind of wild duck which can properly be eaten on Fridays because it is so fishy. This proves that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.
Daedalus.
* The text that had been published in The Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, Illinois, USA) of Tuesday 28th August 1917 was as follows:
Sir: Speaking of meatless days, in New Orleans there is sold a kind of wild duck which can properly be eaten on Fridays because it is so fishy. This proves that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Daedalus.
10-: From Table Manners and How Not to Do So, by A. P. Garland, published in The Bystander (London, England) of Wednesday 15th December 1920:
Of course, no little delicacy is necessary in handling the subject of table-manners, for, as Milton wittily put it, “one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.” But when I think of the pitfalls, the traps, the gins (non-alcoholic) that beset the footpath of the neophyte I gladly do my best to ensure that no bright, young, ardent soul shall damn himself socially through ignorance.
11-: From the column It Seems to Me, by Heywood Brown, published in The Erie Daily Times (Erie, Pennsylvania, USA) of Monday 19th October 1925—the context does not explain the use of the phrase:
“As the French say,” remarked the taller of the funny men (Blinken and Nod)—the Somewhat Different Comedians), “one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.”
The neurotic at his post in the upper gallery laughed as heartily as any one else at this engaging sally when first he heard it on a Monday afternoon.
12-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Day by Day, published in the Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee, Angus, Scotland) of Monday 30th November 1925:
“In some restaurants the skill of the chefs is equal to making the same material serve for both fish and entree courses.” One man’s meat is another man’s poisson.
13-: From the column Notes Here and There, published in The Pittsburgh Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) of Friday 8th January 1926:
As a frequenter of French tables d’hotes, we note that what may be one’s man meat may be another man’s poisson.
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