eel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ele, later eele,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ǣl,^[3][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *ēlaz,^[8][9] which is also the source of Old Frisian ēl,^[6][2] Old Saxon āl and Old High German āl,^[2][5][4] Middle Dutch ael, Dutch aal, German Aal,^[2][10] Old Norse áll^[10][8] and Swedish ål.^[10] Its further origin is unknown, with no certain cognates outside Germanic.^{[9][10][5][6][11]} The OED calls untenable the idea that it is related to the Latin and Greek words for eel, Latin anguilla and Ancient Greek ἔγχελυς (énkhelus).^[10] Kroonen calls it an old fish name,^[8] and Partridge, following Walshe, tentatively linked it with the Greek word for olive oil, because of the eel's slipperiness.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fish: about 1000, in Ælfric's works.^[2] In Ælfric's Colloquy the fisherman, asked what fish he catches, answers "ǽlas and hacodas", eels and haddocks.^[7] Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the 12th century,^[4] and Barnhart dates the Middle English form ele to about 1200.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The fish's slippery body made it a type of anything hard to hold: the OED records figurative phrases from 1524,^[10][9] and since 1841 eel has been used of a slippery person, such as a confidence trickster or a prisoner who escapes.^[14] In the 17th century a salt eel was a rope's end used for flogging, from the use of an eelskin as a whip; the OED records it from 1663, in Pepys, to 1699.^[10] The name was extended to other fishes of the same snakelike shape (before 1705, in Ray)^[10] and to the tiny worms found in vinegar and paste (1746).^[10] In 19th-century America an eel was a nickname for a New Englander, from about 1837 in Haliburton's Clockmaker.^[10][14] Slang also used it for the penis, from about 1608 in Shakespeare's Pericles, and for a very thin person (1928).^[14] The verb, to move like an eel, is recorded from 1922, in Joyce's Ulysses.^[10] Johnson (1755) described the eel as "a serpentine slimy fish, that lurks in mud".^[15] The English dialects had the forms ail in Devon, ell in Aberdeenshire, eyle in Cornwall and yel in Somerset, and compounds such as eel-gad, a spear for catching eels.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English ǣl, the fish, in Ælfric.^[2][7]
• c. 1200 – Middle English ele.^[13][2]
• 1524 – in figurative phrases, the type of something slippery.^[10][9]
• c. 1608 – slang, the penis, in Shakespeare.^[14]
• 1663 – salt eel, a rope's end used for flogging (obsolete after 1699).^[10]
• before 1705 – other fishes like eels in shape.^[10]
• 1746 – the tiny worms found in vinegar and paste.^[10]
• c. 1837 – in the United States, a New Englander.^[10][14]
• 1841 – a slippery, evasive person.^[14]
• 1922 – verb, to move like an eel.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of an order of long, snakelike fishes with a smooth, slimy skin and small fins, such as the European freshwater eel: The fishermen hauled up a basket of eels.^[17][4][10]
2. Any of various other animals with a long body and smooth skin, such as the electric eel or the lamprey.^[17][10]
3. A slippery, evasive or untrustworthy person.^[17][14]
4. A tiny worm of eel-like shape found in vinegar or paste.^[10][4]

Verb

1. To fish for eels.^[4][10]
2. To move in a winding, slippery way like an eel: She eeled her way through the crowd.^[10]

Word family

• eellike
• eely
• eelworm
• glass eel

Related words

• eelpout
• eelgrass

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins