# My fine feathered friend **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544 "2006-10-23T12:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/1 "2006-10-23T12:41:07Z")
What is the origin of ‘my fine feathered friend’? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/2 "2006-10-23T15:40:53Z")
I found a Tom & Jerry cartoon from 1942 called Fine Feathered Friend. I think Glenn Miller recorded a tune called My Fine Feathered Friend, but I can’t find a reference to it that has a date. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/3 "2006-10-23T16:13:04Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus] I found a Tom & Jerry cartoon from 1942 called Fine Feathered Friend. I think Glenn Miller recorded a tune called My Fine Feathered Friend, but I can’t find a reference to it that has a date. [/QUOTE] According to [AllMusic.com](http://AllMusic.com), that song was recorded in either 1935, 1937 or 1938 - as it appears on a Glenn Miller compilation that has songs from those years. I found a site that has a listing of movie songs written by Jimmy McHugh (who wrote that song) and the site says it appears in the movie “You’re A Sweetheart” in 1937. As for origins…I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/4 "2006-10-23T21:00:47Z")
Here’s the earliest OED cite for “feathered friends”. > [@](#): > > 1933 E. A. ROBERTSON Ordinary Families xiv. 294, I did not write one letter about ‘our feathered friends’ which was not published. Since it’s quoted, I gather the phrase was already been in use. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/5 "2006-10-24T00:51:46Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] Here’s the earliest OED cite for “feathered friends”. [/QUOTE] Our feathered friends are birds. ‘My fine feathered friend’, as I’ve heard it, is used to refer to a person in the same way as one would say, ‘My dear boy’. (Only I’ve most often – but not each time – heard it uttered by gloating villains.) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/6 "2006-10-24T04:31:43Z")
Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh wrote _My Fine Feathered Friend_ in 1937. Glenn Miller and Woody Herman both recorded it that year. The phrase “fine feathered friend” was also used in the song _My Funny Valentine_, written in 1937 as well (by Rodgers and Hart). See the lyrics [here](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/babesinarms/myfunnyvalentine.htm). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/7 "2006-10-24T19:25:43Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] Our feathered friends are birds. ‘My fine feathered friend’, as I’ve heard it, is used to refer to a person in the same way as one would say, ‘My dear boy’. (Only I’ve most often – but not each time – heard it uttered by gloating villains.) [/QUOTE] I realize that. And I did not say that the OED entry was proof of the origin of ‘my fine feathered friend’. But I think it shows at least that ‘mfff’ did not occur before that. If it had, that reference would be in the OED instead. The exact origin hasn’t been shown here yet. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fine-feathered-friend/377544/8 "2006-10-24T23:14:12Z")
You can certainly find cites in newspapers from 1920-1934 which call people, especially women, who have pretty trappings and manners but who are not what they seem on the inside, as “fine-feathered.” It was merely some writer discovering that “fine feathered friends” had a melodic ring to it, and it was picked up as a catch phrase, no doubt popularized by the song.