Tench

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A stout freshwater fish of the carp family, with small scales and a greenish olive colour, found in slow-moving lakes and ponds
2. An olive-green European fish from the carp family that lives in slow, weedy waters and has very small scales
3. A heavy-bodied, greenish freshwater fish of the carp family, often prized by anglers for its sport in still waters

Etymology: The tench is a freshwater fish of the carp family, and its name has travelled a long way to reach English. Its ancestor is the Late Latin "tinca", which passed into Old French as "tenche" and then into Middle English as "tenche". The English word is thus a borrowing that arrived already shaped by centuries of spoken Latin, and it has kept its ancient form almost unchanged. The name is a contraction of the Latin original, and the English spelling has settled on the form it has held since the Middle English period. Unlike many fish names that were recast by English speakers, this one was taken over whole, so the modern word is recognisably the same creature the Roman writers would have named.