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Alewife

//ˈeɪlˌwaɪf// noun

Definitions

Noun

1
A woman who keeps an alehouse. archaic
2
A migrating North American fish, Alosa pseudoharengus.
"In his System of Nature, A. D. 1776, Linnæus declares, “I hereby separate the whales from the fish.” But of my own knowledge, I know that down to the year 1850, sharks and shad, alewives and herring, against Linnæus’s express edict, were still found dividing the possession of the same seas with the Leviathan."
3
shad-like food fish that runs rivers to spawn; often salted or smoked; sometimes placed in genus Pomolobus wordnet
4
Any of several species similar in appearance.
5
flesh of shad-like fish abundant along the Atlantic coast or in coastal streams wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From ale + wife.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Possibly from aloof, the Narragansett 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.

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