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scad1

[skad]
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noun, plural (especially collectively) scad, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) scads.
  1. any carangid fish of the genus Decapterus, inhabiting tropical and subtropical shore waters.
  2. any of several related carangid fishes, as of the genera Trachurus or Selar.
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Origin of scad1

First recorded in 1595–1605; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for scads

Historical Examples

  • She'll ne'er backward linger, this land of our dads, for she is a dinger at nailing the scads.

    Rippling Rhymes

    Walt Mason

  • You'll find a buckskin purse, with some scads in it, in the bag.

  • One day they were out and caught six mackerel and six scads.

  • Now, scads are of small value, and yet Dick got them all, and Hugh all the mackerel.

  • Oh, heaps of them—scores—dead oodles and scads of 'em, as we girls say.

    Recollections of a Varied Life

    George Cary Eggleston

British Dictionary definitions for scads

scads

pl n
  1. informal a large amount or number
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Word Origin

C19: of uncertain origin

scad

noun plural scad or scads
  1. any of various carangid fishes of the genus Trachurus, esp the horse mackerel
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Word Origin

C17: of uncertain origin; compare Swedish skädde flounder
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for scads

n.

"large amounts," 1869, American English, earlier "dollar" (1855, usually in plural), of uncertain origin. Unknown connection to scad, the fish, which were "often very abundant and occasionally seen in enormous shoals":

In July, 1834, as Mr. Yarrell informs us, most extraordinary shoals passed up the channel along the coast of Glamorganshire; their passage occupied a week, and they were evidently in pursuit of the fry of the herring. The water appeared one dark mass of fish, and they were caught by cart-loads, and might even be baled out of the water by the hands alone. ["British Fish and Fisheries," 1849]
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scad

n.

c.1600, Cornish name for a type of fish (also known as horse mackerel) abundant on the British coast; of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of shad. OED compares Welsh ysgaden "herrings," Norwegian dialectal skad, Swedish skädde "flounder."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper