different between loach vs groundling

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l??t?/
• Rhymes: -??t?

Etymology 1

Wikispecies From Middle English loche, from Old French loche, further origin uncertain, possibly from Vulgar Latin *laukka (“loach”), which could be from Gaulish *leuca (“loach, slug”), also attested as the feminine name Leuca, from leux (“bright, light”), a reference to slugs' bright appearance, the fish later being associated due to similarities to the slug.

Noun

loach (plural loaches)

1. A bottom-feeding freshwater fish in the superfamily or suborder Cobitoidea.
   1. Any true loach, of the family Cobitidae.
   2. A similar fish in one of three other families of Cypriniformes: Botiidae, Balitoridae, and Gyrinocheilidae.

Derived terms

• clown loach (Chromobotia macracanthus)
• dojo loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
• hillstream loach (Balitoridae)
• muddy loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
• oriental loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
• panda loach (Yaoshania pachychilus)
• pond loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
• river loach (Balitoridae)
• spined loach (Cobitis taenia)
• sucking loach (Gyrinocheilus spp.)
• weather loach (Misgurnus spp.)

Translations

References

Etymology 2

From the pronunciation of the acronym LOH (“loach”)

Noun

loach (plural loaches)

1. (slang) Synonym of LOH (light observation helicopter)

English

Etymology

From ground +? -ling. Compare Old English grundling (“a groundling fish, grundel”).

Pronunciation

Noun

groundling (plural groundlings)

1. Any of various plants or animals living on or near the ground, as a benthic fish or bottom feeder, especially:
   • 1922, Ivan Turgenev, A House of Gentlefolk, translated by Constance Garnett, London: Heinemann, Chapter XXVI, p. 155, [1]:

     In the pond behind the garden there were plenty of carp and groundlings.

   • 1929, Robinson Jeffers, "The Loving Shepherdess" in The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, New York: Random House, 1937, p. 219, [2]:

     […] the ewe called Tiny / Crossed over and touched her, the others turned anxious looks / From sniffing the autumn-pinched leaves of the groundling blackberries.
   1. The spined loach (Cobitis taenia), weather loach ( Misgurnus fossilis), or other member of the loaches.
   2. The ringed plover, Charadrius hiaticula.
2. An audience member in the cheap section (usually standing; originally in Elizabethan theater).
   • 1609, Thomas Dekker, The Guls Horn-Booke, London: J.M. Dent, 1936, Chapter VI, p. 47, [3]:

     when your Groundling, and gallery-Commoner buyes his sport by the penny, and, like a Hagler, is glad to utter it againe by retailing.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Penguin, 1992, p. 240:

     The flag is up on the playhouse by the bankside. The bear Sackerson growls in the pit near it, Paris garden. Canvasclimbers who sailed with Drake chew their sausages among the groundlings.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 11, [4]:

     Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a palatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings, among the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is enacted.

   • 1943, Sinclair Lewis, Gideon Planish, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter VIII, p. 71:

     In fact, most of the mob did not know there was such a thing as a director, and it was the actors and the student orchestra whom the groundlings applauded.
3. (by extension) A person of uncultivated or uncultured taste.
4. One who is confined to the ground, especially:
   1. (military, slang) A soldier who fights on the ground or serves as ground crew, as opposed to a seaman, pilot, etc.
   2. (fantasy) A member of a race that lives primarily underground, such as a dwarf.
5. (Abrahamic religions) Adam, before eating the apple of knowledge of good and evil (emphasizing his creation from the ground).

See also

• (cheap section): nosebleed seat, peanut gallery

References

• Notes from an edition of Hamlet