Meanings
- uncountableA paste made from anchovies, used as a spread.
Breakfast was lighter in this English household. […] Elizabeth and I had toast and anchovette—anchovy paste.
1986, Carolyn Meyer, chapter 7, in Voices of South Africa,, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, page 1262 more examples
Lunch was eaten at about 1.15 p.m., the food consisting of anchovette paste, bread and butter, tea, and, in one case, treacle.
1925, Report of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales for the Year 1925, Sydney, published 1927, page 184She did just think about her home sometimes, eating her anchovette sandwich, for instance, in the half-hour she took off for lunch.
1955, Patrick White, chapter 16, in The Tree of Man, New York: Viking, page 258
Origin
From anchovy + -ette; probably coined as a brand name, but compare French anchovette (“Engraulis ringens, a species of anchovy found off the coasts of Chile and Peru”), from Spanish anchoveta.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
anchovette. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchovette
“anchovette.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchovette. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anchovette,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchovette.
Source: anchovette on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.