alevin

[prettygoodword]

alevin (AL-uh-vuhn) - n., a young fish, esp. a newly hatched fish still attached to the yolk, esp. a salmon.


A technical term used with varying degrees of looseness. When the yolk is depleted, and it starts eating, the fish becomes a fry, and when it develops scales and working fins, a juvenile. Adopted in 1868 from French, from Old French, from alever, to rear (offspring), from Latin allevare, from ad- + levare, to raise.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I wonder whether this is connected to alewife.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

That appears to be completely unrelated -- there's several possible theories, including a possible Native American root, a tenuous connection to the Latin word for shad, and that it's named after the original meaning of alewife, a woman who serves ale in her home, with reference to the fish's round belly.

---L.

[med_cat]

There's a word for that!

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

There is. There's also several words for the life stages of, specifically, the salmon.

It apparently is (or was) important to someone working with them.

[med_cat]

I see...