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perch

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Etymology and origin of the English word perch

Pronunciation

  • UK: /pɜːtʃ/[1]
  • US: /pɝt͡ʃ/[1]

perch1 pole, measure, bird's roost

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1208–1209
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman perche via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin pertica
Etymology tree of perch1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pertica
English perch

Etymology

The pole and bird's roost is inherited from Middle English perche,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman perche and Old French perche (“wooden rod”),[5][6][7] from Latin pertica (“pole, long staff, measuring rod”).[5][6][2][8][9] The Old French word is recorded from the beginning of the 12th century for a wooden rod, by 1170 for a bird's perch and in 1294 for a measure of land.[5] Anglo-Norman also had the form perge.[5] The Latin word was used for a prop, a measuring rod, a length of ten feet and an area measured with the rod, and in medieval Latin for many measures of length and area and for a bird's perch.[5] It is related to Oscan perek (“pole”) and Umbrian perkaf (“twigs, rods”),[6][10][5] but its further origin is unknown;[5][2] Merriam-Webster compares words for a young shoot in Greek and for a vine in Armenian.[4] The verb is inherited from Middle English perchen,[4][2] partly borrowed from Middle French percher, used of a bird from 1376, and partly formed from the noun.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A unit of linear measure: 1208–09, in Barnhart's dating, with Perche as a surname already in 1199.[2] The OED, which also notes surnames from 1199, has the first certain record about 1300, in the South English Legendary, for a pole or stake.[5] Etymonline dates it to the late 13th century, originally only in the sense "pole, rod, stick, stake".[6]

Semantic evolution

From "pole, rod" the word passed to the rod used to measure land, and then to the length it measured, later fixed at 5½ yards.[5][9][6] By the late 14th century it also meant the square perch, a measure of area.[5][6] A horizontal bar for a hawk or tame bird is recorded from Chaucer's Knight's Tale (about 1385);[5][2] from it came, in the late 15th century, anything on which a bird alights or rests, and in the 1520s the figurative sense of a high or secure position.[6] The Shorter Oxford also records it, colloquially, for a small high seat on a vehicle for the driver or a servant.[9] The verb, first used of a bird alighting on a perch, came to be used of people and things placed high or precariously.[5][9][6] In 19th-century slang a perch was a bed, and to drop off the perch was to die, a sense the verb also had in 1886.[11][5] In Scottish and English dialects the perch as a measure varied in length from place to place.[12] The by-form perk is used in several of the same senses.[5][9]

Timeline

  • 1208–09 – perche, a unit of linear measure.[2]
  • c. 1300 – a pole, rod or stake; a fuller's staff; a rod for measuring land.[5]
  • before 1325 – a horizontal bar for hanging clothes (obsolete by 1871).[5]
  • 1378 – a rod supporting the body of a cart, later the pole joining a wagon's front and rear axles.[5]
  • c. 1380 – verb, perched, in Chaucer's House of Fame.[2][5]
  • c. 1385 – a bar for a hawk or tame bird to rest on, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.[5][2]
  • before 1398 – a square perch, a measure of area, in Trevisa.[5]
  • before 1425 – verb, of a bird, to alight on a perch, to roost.[5]
  • 1466 – a pole set up in a river or harbour to aid navigation.[5]
  • 1520s – a high or secure position.[6]
  • 1595 – verb, to stretch cloth on a perch to examine it.[5]
  • 1648 – verb, to set something in a high or precarious place.[5]
  • 1772 – a solid measure for stone.[5]
  • 1886 – slang, to die.[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bar, branch or other place on which a bird roosts or alights.[13][9][5]
  2. A high or precarious place where a person sits or rests, or from which something is viewed: From his perch on the wall he could see the whole match.[13][9]
  3. (historical) A measure of length, 5½ yards; a rod or pole.[13][9][5]
  4. (historical) A square perch, a measure of area equal to one 160th of an acre.[9][5][6]
  5. A solid measure for stone, usually about 24¾ cubic feet.[13][9][5]
  6. The pole joining the front and rear axles of a carriage or wagon.[13][4][9]
  7. A frame on which cloth is held for inspection.[13][4]
  8. A pole set up to mark a channel, shoal or rock.[4][9][5]
  9. (obsolete) A pole, rod or stick.[4][13][9]

Verb

  1. Of a bird, to alight or settle on a perch; to roost.[13][9][5]
  2. Of a person or thing, to sit or be placed on something high or narrow: The old fort perches above the harbour.[9][5][13]
  3. To set or place on something high or precarious: She perched the vase on the top shelf.[4][9][5]
  4. To stretch cloth on a perch to examine it for faults.[9][5]

Word family

  • perchable
  • perching bird
  • percher

perch2 fish

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1300 probably before 1300, Kyng Alisaunder
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman perche via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πέρκη
Etymology tree of perch2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin perca
Italian perca
English perch

Etymology

The fish is inherited from Middle English perche,[2][9] borrowed from Anglo-Norman perche and Old French perche,[5][6][2] from Latin perca,[5][6][8][9] from Ancient Greek πέρκη (pérkē).[5][6][2][8] The OED takes the Greek word as probably the feminine, used as a noun, of an unrecorded adjective meaning "speckled", which also gave περκνός (perknós, “dark-coloured”);[5] Etymonline derives it from that adjective,[6] and Barnhart and Hoad call the two related.[2][14] Both go back to Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“spotted, speckled”),[2][6] the source also of Old English forn (“trout”), Old High German forhana (“trout”), whose descendant is German Forelle (“trout”), Swedish färna, Middle Irish erc and Welsh erch (“speckled, dusky”).[5][6][2][4][10] Klein and Merriam-Webster add Latin porcus (“a spiny-finned fish”).[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The freshwater fish: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, in Barnhart's dating;[2] about 1300 in Etymonline.[6] The OED's first record is from 1381, in a collection of recipes.[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) described the perch as a fish of prey that, like the pike and the trout, has teeth in its mouth, with a humped back armed with stiff spines.[15] The plural is usually the same as the singular.[9][4] From 1804, in William Clark's journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the name was applied to other fishes, at first in North America and later also in Australia and New Zealand,[5] and many such fishes are named with a distinguishing word, as yellow perch and climbing perch.[9][4] In Cumberland dialect the perch was the bass.[12] In Australian slang a perch was a glass of beer (1885).[11]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – the freshwater fish, in Kyng Alisaunder.[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.[6]
  • 1381 – the European perch, in a recipe collection.[5]
  • 1601 – with a distinguishing word, in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny.[5]
  • 1804 – other fishes resembling it, in North America.[5]
  • 1885 – Australian slang, a glass of beer.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A spiny-finned European freshwater fish (Perca fluviatilis), with two dorsal fins, caught for food and sport.[4][9][5]
  2. The closely related yellow perch of North America.[4][9]
  3. Any of many other freshwater or marine fishes resembling these, usually named with a distinguishing word: ocean perch, Nile perch.[4][9][5]

Word family

  • ocean perch
  • climbing perch
  • yellow perch
  • perk

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b 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)
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Perch.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/perch. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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