fish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɪʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fish, fiss,^[2] inherited from Old English fisc,^[3][2][4] from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz,^[3][2][5] related to Old Saxon and Old High German fisc, Old Norse fiskr, Dutch vis, German Fisch and Gothic fisks.^[3][2] Outside Germanic it is cognate with Latin piscis and Old Irish īasc, with the Celtic loss of p,^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *peisk-,^[2][5] though Boutkan, cited by Etymonline, thinks it may be a northwestern European substrate word.^[3] The verb is fiscian, from the noun.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English, about 750 in Barnhart,^[2] with the OED's first example from about 825;^[6] the verb fiscian is from before 899.^[2] Since Old English it has been used for any animal that lives entirely in water,^[3][6] as against the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The broad sense survives in shellfish and starfish.^[3] The constellation Pisces was called the Fishes from the late 14th century.^[3] A fish out of water is old: the idea is in Chaucer,^[7] the phrase “a fisshe out of the see” is from the mid-15th century, and the modern form by the 1610s.^[3] A pretty kettle of fish, an awkward state of affairs, is from 1523 in the OED.^[6] Other fish to fry is from the 1650s^[3] and drink like a fish from 1744.^[3] Fish for a person is from 1722, first of one worth catching, then with a dismissive sense from 1750.^[3] The verb in its figurative sense, “to seek by indirect means”, follows the gospel “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17) from 1413,^[6] and fish in troubled waters is from 1568.^[6] In US slang fish was a dollar from 1920.^[6] The spelling phishing for internet fraud dates from 1992.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 750 – Old English fisc.^[2]
• before 899 – verb, to catch fish.^[2]
• late 14th century – the constellation Pisces.^[3]
• 1413 – verb, figurative.^[6]
• 1523 – a kettle of fish.^[6]
• 1568 – fish in troubled waters.^[6]
• 1650s – other fish to fry.^[3]
• 1722 – a person, as one to be caught.^[3]
• 1744 – drink like a fish.^[3]
• 1920 – a dollar (US slang).^[6]
• 1992 – phishing.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A cold-blooded water vertebrate with fins and gills.
2. Loosely, any water animal, as in shellfish or jellyfish.
3. The flesh of fish as food.
4. (informal) A person of a particular kind: a cold fish.
5. the Fishes: the constellation and zodiac sign Pisces.

Verb

1. To catch or try to catch fish.
2. To search by groping: fished in her bag for the keys.
3. To seek something by indirect means: fishing for compliments.

Word family

• fishless
• fishlike
• fishability
• fishable
• fisher
• fishery
• fishline
• fishnet

Related words

• piscine
• fishy
• Pisces
• pisci-
• piscivore
• piscatology
• pisciform
• fishmonger
• bony fish
• cartilaginous fish
• finfish
• ichthyology
• porpoise

Usage notes

The plural is usually fish,^[8] fishes is used for different kinds of fish.^[8][3] A separate noun fish, a strengthening piece of wood or iron on a spar or rail (whence fishplate), comes from French fiche, from ficher “to fix”;^[5][9] and a flat bone counter used in games, from 1728, is from French fiche too.^[5][6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press