ˈlaspring
[Perh. a corruption of lax-pink (see lax n.1 b); interpreted as a contraction for last spring; cf. last brood in quot. 1861.]
One of the many names for the young salmon. Also gravel laspring.
| 1760 Hawkins in Walton's Angler i. vi. 143 note, A small but excellent fish of the Trout kind, called a Last-spring. Ibid. vii. 153 note. 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 50 Brandling, Fingerling, Skirling, Gravelling, Laspring, Sparling, &c. 1861 Act 24–5 Vict. c. 109 §4 ‘Young of Salmon’ shall include..Par, Spawn, Pink, Last Spring, Hepper, Last Brood, Gravelling [etc.]. 1881 19th Cent. Apr. 693 It is..unlawful for me..to catch a small samlet or laspring as long as my finger, although there are thousands on the streams below my house. 1889 ‘J. Bickerdyke’ Bk. All-round Angler iii. 7 Gravel laspring, same as par. |