Capelin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A species of fish primarily inhabiting northern oceanic regions, often serving as a food source for bigger fish and seabirds
2. A small, schooling fish from the family Osmeridae, prevalent in arctic and subarctic waters, significant in local ecosystems
3. A small fish that forms large groups and is found mainly in cold northern seas, playing a key role in marine food chains

Etymology: The fish is named after a churchman. The Middle French "capelan" meant "chaplain," a priest attached to a chapel or a noble household, and the word traveled from the Late Latin "cappellānus," itself derived from "cappella" (a small chapel or cloak). Provençal and Old Occitan speakers used the same form, and it passed into French and then into English as the name of this small northern fish. The connection to the clergy is a matter of resemblance rather than any religious association, and the exact reason for the transfer is not recorded. What the word does show is how a term for a church official ended up on the tables of northern fishing communities, where the capelin's abundance made it an important catch and a staple for predators such as cod and seabirds. The capelin and the chaplain are doublets: two English words that descend from the same Latin source by separate routes, one through French and popular speech, the other through a more learned borrowing for the church office.