^^8 AMERICA N FISHES. 



and ball, and other words. By the Anglo-Saxons it was called the Cod, 

 from the word gad or goad, a rod. By the Germans it was known as the 

 Stockfisch, from Stock, a stick. 



"The Hollanders varied a little from this, and as far back as the year 

 1400 called it the Kabeljaauw, which seems to be from the Dutch gabcl, 

 a fork. They also called it the BakkcIJauue. 



" The French Morue is not from the above root. It may be from the 

 Celtic Alor, the sea. The French, however, never prepared the Cod by 

 drying it on a stick, but salted it as the Morue verte, or green Cod. The 

 French Moluc is merely a change in the liquid consonants. 



"When the Cod is dried on the downs it is called Dunfish, from the 

 Gaelic root Diiiii, a hill. If dried on the rocks it becomes the Rock Cod, 

 or the Klippfisk of the Norwegians. Among these last the Cod is called 

 the Dorset, or Torsk, in English Tusk, from the Gothic Durrcu, to dry. 



"The English 'Aberdeen fish,' or French laberdan, is from the 

 Gaelic flj^ar, the mouth; dczn, a river, or fish caught near the river's 

 mouth." 



These remarks are suggestive in the extreme, since they explain the 

 origin of almost all of the names now applied to this species both in its 

 fresh and cured condition.* 



The name by which this species was known among the Narragansett 

 Indians is indicated by the following sentence from Roger William's 

 " Key into the Languages of America ": 



" Panganaut, tamwock. Cod, which is the first that comes a little 

 before the Spring." 



In the vicinity of Cape Ann the young Cod, too small to swallow a 

 bait, are sometimes known to the fishermen as "Pickers," and through- 

 out all Eastern Massachusetts the name " Scrod," or "Scrode," is in 

 common use. In its primary meaning it seems to refer to these small 

 fish slightly corned, in which condition they are a favorite article of food, 

 but the name is also transferred to the young fish themselves. The 

 fishermen recognize several varieties of Cod for which they have different 

 names. Rock Cod are those which are found in shoal water among the 

 reefs and ledges, and which usually are of a dark color ; these fish arc 

 often brilliant red in color, owing to the fact that the small animals u])on 

 which they live feed upon the red algoe, abundant in those localities, and 



*Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary, recently published, does not confirm the views advanced by Mr. 

 Brevoort, remarking; "Isuppose that this word <:<«/ must be the same as the Middle English coddc or cod, a 

 husk, bag, bolster: though the resemblance of the fish to a bolster is but fanciful. It is obvious that Shakes- 

 peare knew nothing of tlie Linna;aa name ^adus (Greek yaSos), nor is the derivation of cod from gadtis at 

 all satisfactory, 



