EEPGET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 169 



life in a new land. One such is a\ewiie {Po/nololu.9 pse>uIoharen(/u-'<), 

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

 called, wiiich enter the rivers of New England. 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 17th c. aloofe^ taken by some 

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

 for French aloi<e^ a shad. Further investigation is required." , (It is 

 defined "An American fish [Olupea serrata] closely allied to the her- 

 ring.") Further investigation has demonstrated that the supposed 

 etymology is based on errors of several kinds. Too nuich space would 

 be required to give the details, and those especially interested may 

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

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

 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 

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

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

 doubtless derived from the French through the Normans. In 1620, 

 the same year that the Pilgrim Fathers left old England and reached 

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

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

 result of a printer's mistaking an old-fashioned median -y for an f The 

 second John Winthrop sent to the Royal Societ}^ an article on "maiz," 

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

 p. lOOG).'^' In that article he noted the coincidence of the planting of 

 corn by the Indians and the "coming up of a fish, called aloof e^ into 

 the rivers." Of course that fish could onl}^ have been the one called 

 by his contemporaries, Morton, Wood, and Josselyn, alUze and alcicife. 

 (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, allow, alice, olafe, and 

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

 plural) aumsuog, according to Roger Williams, or urivpmuges, accord- 

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

 allice or aUU shad. 



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



fcj. H. Trumbull, in his Natick Dictionary (1903), refers from aum-sa-oij to Ommis; "ummis,pl. + 

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

 Natick. 



