33 8 
AMERICAN 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 gabel , 
a fork. They also called it the Bakkeljauue. 
“ The French Morue is not from the above root. It may be from the 
Celtic Mor , 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 Molue is merely a change in the liquid consonants. 
“When the Cod is dried on the downs it is called Dunfish, from the 
Gaelic root Duin , 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 Durren, to dry. 
“The English ‘Aberdeen fish,’ or French Laberdan, is from the 
Gaelic abar, the mouth; dan, 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 are 
often brilliant red in color, owing to the fact that the small animals upon 
which they live feed upon the red algae, abundant in those localities, and 
*Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary, recently published, does not confirm the views advanced by Mr. 
Brevoort, remarking: “I suppose that this word cod must be the same as the Middle English codde 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 the Linnaean name gadus (Greek 70.609), nor is the derivation of cod from gadus at 
all satisfactory. 
