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mackerel

noun

  1. seafood
  2. common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae
L323495 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈmæk(ə)ɹəl/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English makerel, maquerel, from Old French maquerel, from Middle Dutch makelare, makelaer (“broker”) (> makelaar (“broker, peddler”)). See also French maquereau.

  1. A pimp; also, a bawd.

    1483, William Caxton, Magnus Cato, quoted in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, publ. by John Russell Smith (1847), page 536. […] nyghe his hows dwellyd a maquerel or bawde […]

    NETTING MACKEREL: THE PIMP DETAIL