Etymology

stickleback

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Today it means: Any one of numerous species of small fish of the family Gasterosteidae. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct nests from weeds. Full definition →

Old English sticel
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromsticel
  2. English todaystickleback

From dialectal stickle (“a prickle, spine, sting”), from Old English sticel + bæc. See stick (transitive verb) and compare banstickle.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishsticel all →

stickle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.