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shad

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L327563 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ʃæd/

name

Etymology: * As an Urdu and Persian surname, from شاد (šâd, “glad, cheerful”). This surname is mostly found in Pakistan. * As an English surname, from the noun shad. * As a German surname, Americanized from Schade, itself related to Schaden (“damage”).

  1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English shadde, from Old English sceadd, possibly from Celtic (compare Scottish Gaelic sgadan (“herring”), Welsh ysgadan) or from Scandinavian/North Germanic (compare dialectal Norwegian skadd (“small whitefish”), Old Norse skata (“kind of fish”)), but the order of borrowing is unclear and the ultimate origin of these words is obscure.

  1. Any one of several species of food fishes that make up the genus Alosa in the family Clupeidae, to which the herrings also belong; river herring.

    Each river had its village and its iron bridge that the train crossed with a blast of its whistle, and the girls bathing in the icy water leaped like shad as it passed, unsettling travelers with their fleeting breasts.

  2. Any bluefish of the species Pomatomus saltatrix.