crayfish

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Alteration (by folk etymological influence of fish) of Middle English crevis (whence modern dialectal crevis), from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-, *grebʰ- (“to scratch, crawl”), or from a substrate word folk-etymologically influenced by this root.

Akin to Old High German krebiz (Modern German Krebs (“crustacean, crab, crayfish”)), Middle Low German krēvet (“crab, crayfish”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab.

Doublet of crevette, crevis, and Krebs.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɹeɪˌfɪʃ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)

  1. Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
    1. (New England, Pennsylvania, Upper Midwestern US) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
  2. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
  3. (Australia) A freshwater crayfish (family Parastacidae), such as the gilgie, marron, or yabby.
  4. (Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family (Scyllaridae).

Usage notes

  • Within the US, the term crayfish predominated in the region of New England and in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In much of the United States—in the South, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the Midwest and in the West—crawfish predominated. In a belt stretching across Kentucky through Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in Oregon and northern California, the term crawdad predominated. Over the course of the 21st century, crawdad and crayfish have declined in the US in favor of crawfish. By 2020, crawfish was the most popular synonym in all regions of the US with crayfish in a far second place.[1]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)

  1. (intransitive) To catch crayfish.
  2. Alternative spelling of crawfish (to backpedal, desert, or withdraw).

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], 29 July 2013 (last accessed), archived from the original on 6 June 2013

Further reading

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