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Corphish (Pokémon): Difference between revisions
→Name origin
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Alternatively, it could be a homonymic play on the arcane Newfoundland fishing term ''corfish''; the meaning of "corfish" is not clear. According to "West to Pemaquid,"<sup>[http://members.skyweb.net/~channy/Westto.html]</sup>, corfish were a "kind of dried fish," specifically, "a green variety." It goes on to say that the other kind of dried fish was called "dunfish," which we can ascertain from the 1913 Webster means "''codfish cured in a particular manner, so as to be of a superior quality.''" We can assume from this that "corfish" is thus probably a type of preserved, dried codfish, and, according to ''West to Pemaquid'', lower quality than dunfish (''corfish ... was suitable for sale ... as slave food ...''). "Colony of Avalon,"<sup>[http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/history/documents/letter_48.html]</sup> further asserts corfish to mean "wet-cured fish" (to ''cure'' being to preserve using salts or smoke). ''Corfish'' is mostly obsolete, but is still sometimes used, and can especially be found in old English; for example, see page 279 of ''Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings'' or ''New England Before the Pilgrim Fathers Landed''<sup>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16038/16038-h/16038-h.htm]</sup>: "Of dry fish we made about 40000. of Cor fish about 7000," and "With these Furres, the Traine, and Corfish I returned for England in the Bark ..." (1614). The ''Dictionary of Newfoundland English'' defines "corfish," but it is not widely available. | Alternatively, it could be a homonymic play on the arcane Newfoundland fishing term ''corfish''; the meaning of "corfish" is not clear. According to "West to Pemaquid,"<sup>[http://members.skyweb.net/~channy/Westto.html]</sup>, corfish were a "kind of dried fish," specifically, "a green variety." It goes on to say that the other kind of dried fish was called "dunfish," which we can ascertain from the 1913 Webster means "''codfish cured in a particular manner, so as to be of a superior quality.''" We can assume from this that "corfish" is thus probably a type of preserved, dried codfish, and, according to ''West to Pemaquid'', lower quality than dunfish (''corfish ... was suitable for sale ... as slave food ...''). "Colony of Avalon,"<sup>[http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/history/documents/letter_48.html]</sup> further asserts corfish to mean "wet-cured fish" (to ''cure'' being to preserve using salts or smoke). ''Corfish'' is mostly obsolete, but is still sometimes used, and can especially be found in old English; for example, see page 279 of ''Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings'' or ''New England Before the Pilgrim Fathers Landed''<sup>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16038/16038-h/16038-h.htm]</sup>: "Of dry fish we made about 40000. of Cor fish about 7000," and "With these Furres, the Traine, and Corfish I returned for England in the Bark ..." (1614). The ''Dictionary of Newfoundland English'' defines "corfish," but it is not widely available. | ||
Old English also used the forms "cor fish" and "cor-fish." Other references to corfish in archaic documents, particularily those authored by Captain John Smith, which provides clues to its meaning are as follows: | |||
*"''where they take nothing but small Cod, where of the greatest they make Cor-fish, and the rest is hard dried, which we call Poore-John, would amaze a man with wonder.''<sup>[http://webroots.org/library/usahist/ghov2-01.html]</sup> | |||
*:"''Newfoundland doth yearly freight near eight hundred sail of ships with a silly, lean, skinny poor-john, and cor fish ...''"<sup>[http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/history/documents/letter_62.html]</sup> | |||
Its Japanese name is based on 平家蟹 ''heikegani'', [[wp:Heike crab|Heike crab]]. | Its Japanese name is based on 平家蟹 ''heikegani'', [[wp:Heike crab|Heike crab]]. | ||