▪ I. pickerel1
(ˈpɪkərəl)
Forms: 4–6 pyk-, 4–7 pikerel(l(e, 5 pykrelle, pyckerylle, 5–6 pekerell(e, 6 pykarelle, 6–7 pikrel(l, 6–8 pickrel(l, -erell, 6– pickerel, (7 -il, pikrill, 9 pickarel).
[dim. of pike n.4, either of Anglo-Fr. origin, or formed in ME. on OF. analogies: cf. cockerel and -rel. (Fr. has picarel, 16th c. in Godef., as a local name for a salt-water fish on the Mediterranean coast.)]
A young pike, especially at a certain stage of its growth: cf. quot. 1587.
| 1338 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 35 In quatuor pykerells empt. ixd. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 175 Bet is..a pyk than a pykerel. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 641/25 Hic lucellus, pyckerylle. 1462 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 562 My master put in the said pond in smale pekerelles, xx. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 12 Lu[c]es, becques, becquets, luses, pikes, pikerellis. 1579 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 402 No pickerell is lawfull eyther to be taken or solde not beinge in length tenne ynches fishe. 1587 Harrison England iii. iii. (1878) ii. 18 The pike as he ageth, receiueth diuerse names, as from a frie to a gilthed, from a gilthed to a pod, from a pod to a iacke, from a iacke to a pickerell, from a pickerell to a pike, and last of all to a luce. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 671 To sundry fishes..as to the Tench, Pike or Pikerel. 1767 Phil. Trans. LVII. 281 A small pickerel..contained no fewer than 25,800 eggs. 1891 E. Field West. Verse, Long Ago 196, I knew the rushes near the mill Where pickerel lay that weighed a pound. |
b. In U.S. and Canada, The name of several species of Esox, esp. the smaller species; about the Great Lakes, the true pike; also the pike-perch, wall-eye, or glass-eye (Stizostedion vitreum).
| 1765 T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. I. v. 465 Pickrel, bream, pearch, and other freshwater fish. 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. 50 [They] used to go and fish through the ice for pickerel every winter. 1881 Harper's Mag. Sept. 512 The principal catch is pickerel, which can be taken even by an unskilful fisherman. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXX. 435/2 What we termed ‘pickerel’ (wall-eyed pike) were better table-fish. |
▪ II. ˈpickerel2
[? dim. f. pick. Cf. dotterel.]
A bird: the common name in Scotland of the dunlin (Tringa alpina).
| 1831 Montagu's Ornith. Dict. 144 Dunlin..Provincial. Purre, Least Snipe..Pickerel. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 193 Dunlin... Pickerel (Scotland generally). A name applied to all small waders. |