Etymology

anchovy

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Today it means: Any small saltwater fish of the Engraulidae family, consisting of 160 species in sixteen genera, those of the genus Engraulis being widely sold as food. Full definition →

Spanish anchoa ← Ligurian anciôa ← Corsican anchjuva
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The story

  1. Basque · derived fromantxu
  2. Ancient Greek · derived fromἀφύη
  3. Latin · derived fromaphyē
  4. Corsican · derived fromanchjuva
  5. Ligurian · derived fromanciôa
  6. Spanish · borrowed fromanchoa
  7. English todayanchovy

From Spanish anchoa, from Genoese Ligurian anciôa or related Corsican anchjuva, anciua. The term's ultimate origin is unclear; some suggest it may have derived from an unattested Vulgar Latin term *apiuva, from Latin aphyē, apua, from Ancient Greek ἀφύη (aphúē) (which may be formed like Sanskrit अभ्व (ábhva-, “monster”)); others suggest it comes from Basque antxu, anchu (“dried fish”), from anchuva (“dry”), if that Basque term is not itself derived from Latin via some intermediary. None of these hypotheses is satisfactory because of the phonetic irregularities.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.