different between herring vs alewife

English

Wikispecies

Etymology

From Middle English hering, from Old English h?ring, from Proto-West Germanic *h?ring (“herring”), further etymology unknown. Possibly derived from Proto-Germanic *h?r? (“hair”) +? -ing, due to the similarity of their fine bones to hair. Cognate with Scots hering, haring (“herring”), Saterland Frisian Hiering, Häiring (“herring”), West Frisian hjerring (“herring”), Dutch haring (“herring”), German Low German Hereng, Hering (“herring”), German Hering (“herring”). French hareng, Norman ?éren, Latin haringus, etc. are borrowings from Germanic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h????/
• Rhymes: -????

Noun

herring (plural herrings or herring)

1. A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.
2. Fish in the family Clupeidae.
3. Fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.

Derived terms

• Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)
• Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras)
• English herring (Clupea harengus)
• herringbone
• longfin herring (Pristigasteridae)
• matjes herring
• Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii)
• red herring
• round herring (Dussumieriidae)
• thread herring (Opisthonema)
• wolf herring (Chirocentridae)

Translations

See also

• buckling
• kipper
• stockfish

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?e?lw??f/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?e?l?wa?f/

Etymology 1

ale +? wife.

Noun

alewife (plural alewives)

1. (archaic) A woman who keeps an alehouse.

Synonyms

• brewess

Etymology 2

Unknown. Possibly from aloof, the Indian name of a fish. See Winthrop on the culture of maize in America, “Phil Trans.” No. 142, p. 1065, and Baddam’s “Memoirs,” vol. ii. p. 131.

Possibly from allowes (“a type of shad”), from French alose (“shad”), from Old French [Term?], from Late Latin alausa, influenced by Etymology 1 due to large belly of the fish.

Noun

alewife (plural alewives)

1. A migrating North American fish, Alosa pseudoharengus.
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter I. "The Shipwreck", page 14.

     I saw in Cohasset, separated from the sea only by a narrow beach, a handsome but shallow lake of some four hundred acres […] , and, after the alewives had passed into it, it had stopped up its outlet, and now the alewives were dying by thousands, and the inhabitants were apprehending a pestilence as the water evaporated.

2. Any of several species similar in appearance.

Synonyms

• (Alosa pseudoharengus): branch herring, ellwhop, ellwife, (Canada) gaspereau

Derived terms

• Alewife Brook

Translations

See also

• alewife on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Alosa pseudoharengus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Alosa pseudoharengus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons