different between alec vs alef

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alec (“herring”).

Noun

alec (countable and uncountable, plural alecs)

1. An anchovy or herring, especially pickled or dried.
2. A sauce made from alecs; alec sauce.

Derived terms

• alec sauce
• alecy

See also

• smart alec, smart aleck

References

• New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary By Edy G. Schaffer, HarperCollins, 1996, page 446, "Fish...pickle ALEC" and "Fish...sauce ALEC"
• An abridgement of Ainsworth's dictionary, English and Latin By Robert Ainsworth & Thomas Morell, Kimber & Conrad and Johnson & Warner, 1808, page 173, "herring, Alec [...] pickled herring, Alec"
• "Fish sauces", Fraser's Magazine, Volume 43 By Thomas Carlyle, J. Fraser, 1851, page 267, "[T]he ancient alec corresponds to the modern anchovy... Garum, like alec, was sometimes the name given to a Greek fish (the species unknown) and sometimes the sauce formed from it." [Italics added]
• "Herrings", The Westminster Review, Volumes 81-82, J.M. Mason, 1864, page 178, "The anchovy...was well known and appreciated by the ancients, at least in a pickled state. It was known to the Romans by alec or halec and aphya; it appears at one time to have been used in making the celebrated garum or fish sauce, of which the alec sauce was a thickened variety". [Italics retained from original]
• Prose halieutics: or, Ancient and modern fish tattle By David Badham, J. W. Parker and Son, 1854, page 70-72, "Alec, like garum, was at once the name of a fish and of a sauce made from it... That the fish called halecula, of which the alec [sauce] was originally made, was the anchovy, seems probable [...but some] manufactured alec out of crabs, oysters, shrimps, sea-urchins, and a variety of improper substitutes".

Anagrams

• Acle, acle, cale, lace

Latin

Noun

?l?c n (genitive ?l?cis); third declension

1. Alternative spelling of all?c

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

References

• alec in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• alec in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???.l?f/

Noun

alef (plural alefs)

1. Alternative form of aleph

Anagrams

• Lafe, Leaf, feal, flea, leaf

Catalan

Noun

alef f (plural alefs)

1. The Hebrew letter ??.

Finnish

Noun

alef

1. aleph (first letter of the Hebrew and Phoenician scripts and the Northwest Semitic abjad)

Declension

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Hebrew ??????? (?lep?).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a.lef/
• Hyphenation: à?lef

Noun

alef m (invariable)

1. aleph, specifically:
   1. The name of the Phoenician-script letter ????
   2. The name of the Hebrew-script letter ?

Related terms

• alfa

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• álef, aleph

Etymology

Borrowed from Hebrew ?????. Doublet of alfa.

Noun

alef m (plural alefs)

1. aleph (first letter of the Hebrew alphabet)

Spanish

Noun

alef m (plural alefs)

1. Alternative form of álef