Etymologically
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fish

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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
  • 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