Huer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A lookout stationed on a headland who watches for shoals of pilchards and signals their position to the fishing boats below
2. A watchman posted on the cliffs who spots schools of fish and directs the boats toward them by signal
3. Someone who keeps watch from high ground for fish shoals and alerts the fishermen waiting on the water

Etymology: In the Cornish pilchard fisheries, a huer was a lookout posted on a clifftop. From the high ground he watched the water for shoals, and when he spotted one he raised the alarm, shouting and waving to direct the seine boats to the fish below. The job was a specialised one, and the lookout's cry was what gave the trade its name. The name is built from "hue", an old English word for a shout or outcry, and the suffix "-er", which turns it into a word for a person who does the thing. A huer, then, is literally one who raises the hue, the shout that signals a catch.