trout

Etymology

It continues inherited from Middle English troute, trute,^[2][3][4] partly inherited from Old English truht,^{[5][3][6][7][8]} and partly borrowed from Old French truite, troite (from about 1170).^[9][3][5] Both come from Late Latin tructa, also tructus and trutta, recorded from the 4th century,^[9][10][11] which is probably from Ancient Greek τρώκτης (trṓktēs, “gnawer; a sea fish with sharp teeth”),^{[9][5][12][2]} from τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw”).^[9][13][14] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary give the Greek step as only a possibility.^[5][13] Klein relates the Greek verb to τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”), literally a "gnawer";^[14] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The freshwater fish of the salmon family: Old English, in a glossary printed by Wright and Wülcker, where truht glosses Latin tructa.^[9][7] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1050 and the Middle English form trute to before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The name spread to other fishes like the trout (1604, in a translation of Acosta's natural history of the Indies), and with a qualifying word to many species, as in sea trout and lake trout (1661).^[9][15] Johnson (1755) described it as a delicate spotted fish of brooks and quick streams, and added a second sense, "a familiar phrase for an honest, or perhaps for a silly fellow".^[16] In 17th-century colloquial use true or trusty trout was a confidential friend or servant: the OED dates it from c. 1661 to 1688,^[9][5] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has the word from 1607, in Middleton.^[17] From 1668 trout also meant a woman, later especially an elderly, bad-tempered one;^[9][17] the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins dates the familiar old trout from the late 19th century.^[18] In the 18th century, according to Green's dictionary, it was also a cant word for a Roman Catholic priest.^[17]

Timeline

• Old English – the fish.^[9][7]
• before 1325 – Middle English trute.^[3]
• 1602 – collective use, as in fishing for trout.^[9]
• 1604 – other fishes resembling the trout.^[9]
• 1607 – (slang) a trusted friend, trusty trout.^[17]
• 1668 – (colloquial) a woman.^[9]
• 1766 – (cant) a Roman Catholic priest.^[17]
• late 19th century – old trout, an elderly woman.^[18]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of several game fish of the salmon family, mostly of cool fresh water, especially the brown trout and the rainbow trout; their flesh as food.
2. Any of various similar or related fishes, such as the sea trout.
3. (British, informal, derogatory) A woman, especially an old and irritable one, usually old trout.

Verb

1. To fish for trout.

Word family

• troutless
• troutlike
• trouty
• trout-perch
• cutthroat trout
• silver trout
• lake trout
• brook trout

Related words

• salmon
• char

Usage notes

The plural is usually trout, sometimes trouts.^[19][2][15] In Scotland and west Yorkshire the word was also pronounced troot, and in Ireland the height a trout can leap was a standard of comparison for height.^[20] In Lincolnshire to play trout meant to play truant.^[20]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ 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)