REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 169 



life in a new land. One such is ^lavfiie, {Poiaolohm pstiiJoharenga><)^ 

 so familiar in connection with the enormous schools of the clupeid so 

 called, which enter the rivers of New Encrland, So entirely has the 

 name been submerged in England, so prominent has it become in the 

 United States, that it has been supposed by some lexicographers to be 

 of American origin. For example, in that monument of industry and 

 erudition, "A New Dictionary on Historical Principles [etc.], edited 

 by James A. H. Murray, [LL. D., etc.], with the assistance of many 

 scholars and men of science," the etymology of alewife is given in 

 the following terms: "Corrupted from iTth c. aloof e^ taken by some 

 to be an American Indian name; according to others a literal error 

 for French (iJo>ie^ a shad. Further investigation is required." . (It is 

 defined "An American fish {^(Jliipra serrata] closely allied to the her- 

 ring.") Further investigation has demonstrated that the supposed 

 etymology is based on errors of several kinds. Toonuich space would 

 be required to give the details, and those especialh" interested may 

 tintl the record (by the present writer) in that receptacle of notes 

 curious and philological entitled, "Notes and Queries" (9th s., VIII, 

 451—152). In brief, the status is this: 



(1) Alewife is not only an old English name, but still survives in 

 southwestern England, as attest the works of Couch and Day on English 

 fishes. (2) Alose^ as such or with literal modifications, has existed as 

 an English word, in certain localities, for centuries, although it was 

 doul)tless derived from the French through the Normans. In 1620, 

 the same 3^ear that the Pilgrim Fathers left old England and reached 

 New England, one Venner published the statement that "The aJlmves 

 is taken in the same places that sammon is." (3) Aloof e is simply the 

 resultof a printer's mistaking an old-fashioned median s for any. The 

 s^ond John Winthrop sent to the Royal Society an article on " maiz," 

 which was published in 1(379 in the Philosophical Transactions (XII, 

 p. 1006)." In that article he noted the coincidence of the planting of 

 corn by the Indians and the "coming up of a fish, called aloofe, into 

 the rivers." Of course that fish could only have been the one called 

 by his contemporaries, Morton, Wood, and Josselyn, allhe and aleunfe. 

 (4) Alewife is doubtless a mere variant — an accommodative form, per- 

 haps — of the word variously spelled in olden days alose, aloose (the oo 

 has the value of a prolonged o sound), allowes, alloir, alice, olafle, and 

 oldwife. (5) The Narragansett Indian name of the alewife was (in the 

 plural) aunisuog^ according to Roger Williams, or urnpsmiges, accord- 

 ing to Stiles.^ (6) The current English name of one of the shads is 

 allice or allii^ shad. 



"The reference in the English Dictionary is to 1678 (date of presentation of paper), and page 1017. 



J>J. H. Trumbull, in his Natick Dictionary (1903), refers from aum-su-og to Oinmis; " ummis, pi. + 

 suog, herring, C. [=Cotton] 159." The word is believed to be "dim. of aumsuog" and not properly 

 Natick. 



