shad

English

an American shad (Alosa sapidissima)

Etymology

Old English sceadd, either from Celtic (see Irish Gaelic sgadan (“herring”), Welsh ysgadan) or from Scandinavian (see dialectal Norwegian skadd (“small whitefish”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃæd/
  • Rhymes: -æd

Noun

shad (plural shad or shads)

  1. Any one of several species of food fishes that make up the genus Alosa in the family Clupeidae, to which the herrings also belong; river herring.
    • 2003, Edith Grossman, translator, Gabriel García Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale, Chapter 1
      Each river had its village and its iron bridge that the train crossed with a blast of its whistle, and the girls bathing in the icy water leaped like shad as it passed, unsettling travelers with their fleeting breasts.

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