anchovy
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
From Spanish anchoa, from Genoese Ligurian anciôa or related Corsican anchjuva, anciua. The term's ultimate origin is unclear; some suggest it may have derived from an unattested Vulgar Latin term *apiuva, from Latin aphyē, apua, from Ancient Greek ἀφύη (aphúē) (which may be formed like Sanskrit अभ्व (ábhva-, “monster”));[1] others suggest it comes from Basque antxu, anchu (“dried fish”), from anchuva (“dry”),[2] if that Basque term is not itself derived from Latin via some intermediary.[3]
Pronunciation
Noun
anchovy (plural anchovies)
- Any small saltwater fish of the Engraulidae family, consisting of 160 species in 16 genera, of which the genus Engraulis is widely sold as food.
- 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 40:
- [T]he cooks were laying a refection before him of sack and anchovies and garlic sausage and gammons of bacon and - this was the important item - a great pudding dish out of which rose the noble dome of a crisp brown pie-crust.
Derived terms
Translations
small saltwater fish
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References
- Michael Meier-Brügger, “Griechisch ἀφύη ‘Bratfischchen’, ved. ábhva- ‘Unding’, myk. a-phu-”, Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 52 (1991): 123–5.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “anchovy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Robert Lawrence Trask, The History of Basque
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