different between bass vs fish

English

Etymology 1

From Italian basso (“low”), from Latin bassus (“low”).

Alternative forms

• (noun): base (dated)

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?s
• enPR: b?s, IPA^(key): /be?s/
• Homophone: base

Adjective

bass (comparative more bass, superlative most bass)

1. Of sound, a voice or an instrument, low in pitch or frequency.

   The giant spoke in a deep, bass, rumbling voice that shook me to my boots.

Translations

Noun

bass (plural basses)

1. A low spectrum of sound tones.

   Peter adjusted the equalizer on his audio equipment to emphasize the bass.

2. A section of musical group that produces low-pitched sound, lower than the baritone and tenor.

   The conductor preferred to situate the bass in the middle rear, rather than to one side of the orchestra.

3. One who sings in the bass range.

   Halfway through middle school, Edgar morphed from a soprano to a bass, much to the amazement and amusement of his fellow choristers.

4. (music) An instrument that plays in the bass range, in particular a double bass, bass guitar, electric bass or bass synthesiser.

   The musician swung the bass over his head like an axe and smashed it into the amplifier, creating a discordant howl of noise.

5. The clef sign that indicates that the pitch of the notes is below middle C; a bass clef.

   The score had been written without the treble and bass, but it was easy to pick out which was which based on the location of the notes on the staff.

Synonyms

• (singer): basso
• (clef): F clef

Coordinate terms

• (voice types): soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (female); countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass (male)
• (music) SATB (Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bass (third-person singular simple present basses, present participle bassing, simple past and past participle bassed)

1. To sound in a deep tone.
   • 1623 [1610], William Shakespeare, The Tempest (First Folio ed.), act III, scene iii, lines 99-99

     […] and the Thunder
     (That deepe and dreadfull Organ-Pipe) pronounc'd
     The name of Pro?per : it did ba?e my Tre?pa??e

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bace, bas, alteration of bars, from Old English bærs (“a fish, perch”), from Proto-West Germanic *bars, from Proto-Germanic *barsaz (“perch”, literally “prickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?órsos (“prickle, thorn, scale”). Cognate with Dutch baars (“perch, bass”), German Barsch (“perch”). More at barse.

Alternative forms

• basse (archaic)

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?s, IPA^(key): /bæs/

Noun

bass (countable and uncountable, plural basses or bass)

1. The perch; any of various marine and freshwater fish resembling the perch, all within the order of Perciformes.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

A corruption of bast.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?s, IPA^(key): /bæs/

Noun

bass (countable and uncountable, plural basses)

1. The fibrous inner bark of the linden or lime tree, used for making mats.
2. Fibers from other plants, especially palm trees
3. Anything made from such fibers, such as a hassock, basket or thick mat.

Derived terms

• basswood

See also

• bass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BSAs, SABS, sabs

Cimbrian

Etymology

From Middle High German vaz, from Old High German faz, from Proto-Germanic *fat? (“vessel, container”). Cognate with German Fass, Dutch vat, English vat, Icelandic fat.

Noun

bass n (plural bèssar, diminutive bèssle)

1. (Sette Comuni) vat, tub

Declension

References

• “bass” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

German

Etymology

Former comparative of wohl

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bas]

Adjective

bass (not comparable)

1. greatly

Usage notes

This primarily used in the collocations bass erstaunt/basses Erstaunen.

Declension

Further reading

• “bass” in Duden online

Latvian

Etymology

From Italian [Term?]

Noun

bass m (1st declension)

1. bass

Adjective

bass (definite basais, comparative bas?ks, superlative visbas?kais, adverb basi)

1. bare, unshod (of feet: without shoes, socks or other coverings)

Declension

Synonyms

• kails

Luxembourgish

Verb

bass

1. second-person singular present indicative of sinn

Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bas/

Etymology 1

Inherited from dialectal Arabic; compare Tunisian Arabic ??? (ba??, “to fart”).

Verb

bass (imperfect jboss)

1. to fart

Conjugation

Derived terms

• bassa

Etymology 2

From English bus.

Noun

bass m (plural basis)

1. bus

Middle English

Adjective

bass

1. Alternative form of bas

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin bassus, via Italian basso

Noun

bass m (definite singular bassen, indefinite plural basser, definite plural bassene)

1. (music) bass; (musical range, person, instrument or group performing in the base range)
2. (music) short for bassgitar (bass guitar) or kontrabass (double bass)

Derived terms

• kontrabass
• snurrebass

References

• “bass” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin bassus, via Italian basso

Noun

bass m (definite singular bassen, indefinite plural bassar, definite plural bassane)

1. (music) bass; (musical range, person, instrument or group performing in the base range)
2. (music) short for bassgitar (bass guitar) or kontrabass (double bass)

Derived terms

• kontrabass
• snurrebass

References

• “bass” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Vallader) bas

Etymology

From Late Latin bassus.

Adjective

bass m (f bassa, m pl bass, f pl bassas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader) deep, low

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?sh, IPA^(key): /f??/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /f??/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: phish, ghoti

Etymology 1

From Middle English fisch, from Old English fis? (“fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *fisk, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (“fish”) (compare West Frisian fisk, Dutch vis, Danish fisk, Norwegian fisk, Swedish fisk, German Fisch), from Proto-Indo-European *peys?- (“fish”) (compare Irish iasc, Latin piscis).

Noun

fish (countable and uncountable, plural fish or fishes)

1. (countable) A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.

2. (archaic or loosely) Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water.
3. (Newfoundland) Cod; codfish.
4. (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.

5. (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.
6. (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.
7. (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
8. (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player).
9. (countable, nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
10. (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
11. (countable, nautical, military) A torpedo (the self-propelled explosive device).
    • 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books (2003), page 344:

      The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck.

12. (zoology) A paraphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
    1. Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebra)
    2. Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
    3. Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda)
       1. Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
       2. Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
13. (cartomancy) The thirty-fourth Lenormand card.
14. (prison slang) a new (usually vulnerable) prisoner

Usage notes

The collective plural of fish is normally fish in the UK, except in archaic texts where fishes may be encountered; in the US, fishes is encountered as well, but much less commonly. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is fishes.

Synonyms

• (potential swindling victim): mark
• (card game): Go Fish
• (bad poker player): donkey, donk

Hyponyms

• (aquatic cold-blooded vertabrae with gills): Cephalaspidomorphi, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes
• (food): seafood

Derived terms

Related terms

• (adj): fishly, piscine, fishy (inf.)
• (astronomical): The Fish, Pisces
• (collective): piscifauna
• (combinatorial form): pisci- (Latinate, general)
• (fish-catcher): See fisher
• (fish-eater): piscivore
• (fish-infesting): piscolous
• (fish-killing): piscicidal
• (fish-like): fishly, piscose (culinary), fishy, fishlike (inf.)
• (fish science): fishlore, piscatology (irreg.)
• (fish-shaped): pisciform
• (fish vendor): fishmonger, piscitarian
• (full of fish): fishful, pisculent
• (skin disorder): fish-skin disease
• (state of being a fish): fishdom, fishhood (formal), piscinity (formal), fishiness (inf.)

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: fisi
• ? Chinook Jargon: pish
• ? Finnish: fisu
• ? Zulu: ufishi

Translations

See fish/translations § Noun.

See also

• Appendix:Fish

Etymology 2

Deverbal from to fish (etymology 3).

Noun

fish (plural fishes)

1. A period of time spent fishing.

2. An instance of seeking something.

Etymology 3

From Old English fiscian, from Proto-West Germanic *fisk?n, from Proto-Germanic *fisk?n?.

Verb

fish (third-person singular simple present fishes, present participle fishing, simple past and past participle fished)

1. (intransitive) To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water.
   • 19th c., anonymous, "The Bonny Ship the 'Diamond'"

     It's cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fail,

     For the bonny ship the Diamond goes a-fishing for the whale.

   She went to the river to fish for trout.

2. (transitive) To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.

3. (fishing, transitive) To use as bait when fishing.
4. (intransitive) To (attempt to) find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.

   Synonym: rummage

5. (intransitive, followed by "for" or "around for") To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment,
     But ’tis his due. Yes, you have drunk more wine,
     And shed more blood, than any man in Thebes.

6. (intransitive, cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
7. (nautical, transitive) To repair (a spar or mast) by fastening a beam or other long object (often called a fish) over the damaged part (see Noun above).
   • 1970, James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815, Wordsworth (1998), page 143:

     […] the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.

8. (nautical, transitive) To hoist the flukes of.
   • 1860, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons (page 214)

     Found that the cause of the ship's having drifted on the night of the 19th, was from the bight of the chain span (used to fish the anchor,) having slipped between the shank and upper fluke, thereby preventing the lower fluke from opening […]

Synonyms

• (try to catch a fish): angle, drop in a line
• (try to find something): rifle, rummage
• (attempt to gain (compliments, etc)): angle

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 4

Borrowed from French fiche (“peg, mark”).

Noun

fish (plural fishes)

1. (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.

References

• fish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Further reading

• Fish (disambiguation) on the English Wikipedia. English Wikipedia
• fish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• fish (food) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• fishing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

fish (plural fishes or fish)

1. Alternative form of fisch