Literal translation
as big as a stockfish
Meaning
extremely thin
Explanation
Estocafisso means stockfish, dried cod or herring cured by air-drying, a fish preserved through desiccation that ends up flat, hard, and fleshless, the exact opposite of a plump body; the expression gros coumo un estocafisso, literally as big as a stockfish, works through antiphrasis, the word gros, big, being used here against its own meaning to signal extreme thinness instead. This ironic device, common in popular comparisons, picks a term of comparison whose obviousness contradicts the first term, creating a strong comic effect: everyone knows a flat dried fish is anything but big, which makes the phrase instantly readable as mockery. The expression is said indifferently of a remarkably thin man or woman, without targeting either sex in particular. The register is familiar and mocking, used in comments on someone's build, generally without real malice but with the bluntness typical of Provençal village talk about the body.