Word Study
pilchard
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun pilchard has 2 senses
- pilchard(n = noun.food) sardine - small fatty fish usually canned; Array is a kind of saltwater fish
- pilchard(n = noun.animal) sardina pilchardus, sardine - small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring; Array is a kind of clupeid, clupeid fish
is a member of genus sardina, genus sardinia, sardina
has particulars: pacific sardine, sardinops caerulea
CIDE DICTIONARY
pilchard, n. [Cf. It. pilseir, W. pilcod minnows.].
A small European food fish (Clupea pilchardus ) resembling the herring, but thicker and rounder. It is sometimes taken in great numbers on the coast of England. [1913 Webster]
"Fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings."
[1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
pilchard, n. a small marine fish, Sardinia pilchardus of the herring family (see SARDINE).
Etymology
16th-c. pilcher etc.: orig. unkn.
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