trout

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*terh₁-“to rub, to turn”
2. Ancient Greek · derived fromτρώκτης“nibbler”
3. Late Latin · derived fromtructa
4. Old French · derived fromtruite
5. Old English · inherited fromtruht“trout”
6. Middle English · inherited fromtroute
7. English todaytrout

From Middle English troute, troughte, trught, trouȝt, trouhte, partly from Old English truht (“trout”), and partly from Old French truite; both from Late Latin tructa, perhaps from Ancient Greek τρώκτης (trṓktēs, “nibbler”), from τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, to turn”). The Internet verb sense originated on BBSes of the 1980s, probably from Monty Python's The Fish-Slapping Dance (1972), though that sketch involved a halibut.

Words from the same roots