alewife

¹

[eyl-wahyf]

noun

plural

alewives 

1. a North American fish, Alosa pseudoharengus, resembling a small shad.

alewife

²

[eyl-wahyf]

noun

plural

alewives 

1. a woman who owns or operates an alehouse.

alewife

/ ˈeɪlˌwaɪf /

noun

1. a North American fish, Pomolobus pseudoharengus, similar to the herring Clupea harengus: family Clupeidae (herrings)

Word History and Origins

Origin of alewife¹

1625–35, earlier allowes, perhaps influenced by alewife ², probably < French alose shad < Gallo-Latin alausa

Origin of alewife²

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; ale, wife

Word History and Origins

Origin of alewife¹

C19: perhaps an alteration (through influence of alewife, that is, a large rotund woman, alluding to the fish's shape) of French alose shad

Example Sentences

They learned a similar situation had occurred in the Great Lakes in the 1960s, when lake trout had exhibited similar behaviors after gorging on alewives, another fish chock-full of thiaminase.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"Those dams are preventing other native species like American shad, alewives, blueback herring and American eel from accessing large amounts of historic habitat," says Burrows.

Read more on Salon

In the 1500s some towns, such as Chester, England, actually made it illegal for most women to sell beer, worried that young alewives would grow up into old spinsters.

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How far inland did the alewives come, I wondered, the dam removed after three hundred years and in the first year then they came in a rush.

Read more on Scientific American

Witches in tall black hats, also called alewives, brewsters and brewesses, tended caldrons they stirred with twisted twigs and kept cats to ward off rats.

Read more on New York Times