▪ I. sardine, n.1
(ˈsɑːdaɪn)
Forms: 4 sardiner, sardyn, Sc. sardiane, 6– sardine.
[ad. late L. sardinus, occurring in the Vulgate of Rev. iv. 3 (if the genitive sardinis of the usual text be a mistake for *sardini; but the word may be the genit. of *sardo, a. Gr. σαρδώ, genit. -δοῦς, some gem), where it renders Gr. σάρδινος, a variant reading for σάρδιος (or σάρδιον) sardius, which mod. editors adopt.
The Gr. σάρδινος occurs in one other passage (see L. & Sc.): late L. sardinus is quoted by Du Cange from the Old Latin version of Prov. xxv. 12. OF. sardine 12th c. may perh. represent this word, or it may be a variant of sardoine (see sardoin).]
A precious stone mentioned in Rev. iv. 3. In the non-Biblical examples perh. used for sardoin.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1469 And safyres, & sardiners [? read sardines], & semely topace. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints vi. (Thomas) 279 Preciuse stanys, as sardiane, topias fyne, Iaspis. 1382 Wyclif Rev. iv. 3 Lijk to the siȝt of a stoone iaspis, and to sardyn. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxvii. 276 Degrees..of Sardyne [Roxb. xxx. 136 sardone]. 1526 Tindale Rev. iv. 3 Lyke vnto a iaspar stone, and a sardyne stone [so 1611; 1881 (Revised) a sardius]. 1574 tr. Marlorat's Apocalips (1578) 300 The sixt a Sardine. This stone is all of one colour lyke bloud. |
▪ II. sardine, n.2 (
sɑːˈdiːn)
Forms: 5–6
sardyn, 5
sardeyn, 6, 8
sardin (6
surdone), 7
sardane, 7
sardino,
sirdena (surdiny,
pl. sirdena's,
-dinasses), 7–8
sardina (7
pl. -aes), 9
Sardinia, 6–
sardine.
[a. F. sardine, ad. It. sardina:—L. sardīna (Columella; cf. late Gr. σαρδήνη and σαρδῖνος), f. sarda, = Gr. σάρδη, the sardine or some similar fish. In the 17th and 18th c. the Italian form was often used. The Latin and Greek word may be related to the name of the island, L.
Sardinia,
Gr. σαρδώ:
cf. sard a.]
1. a. A small fish of the Herring family,
Clupea pilchardus, abundant off the shores of Sardinia and Brittany, or a young pilchard of the Cornish coast, when cured, preserved in oil and packed in tins or other cases for sale as a table delicacy.
| c 1430 Two Cookery Bks. 24 Sardeynez. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxviii. 195, I was borne in Aragon,..Masyl baken, and sardyns, I do eate and sel. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Sardelle, ou Sardine,..a kinde of fishe called a Sardine. 1583 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 4) 2154/1 [At Rochelle] there was sent to them euery day in the Riuer (by the hand of the Lord no doubt) a great multitude of fishe (called surdones). 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xii. 14 There flew a fish into our Gallie of the length, colour and bignesse of a great sardin. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 244 The Pike and Sardane [L. trichias] breed twice a yere. a 1623 Fletcher Loves Cure ii. i, A Pilcher, Signior, a Surdiny, an Olive. a 1625 ― Loves Pilgr. i. i, Inc. He looks as he would eat partridge, this guest... Hostesse. With a Sardina, and Zant oil? 1658 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxvi. (ed. 3) 143 The Reliques are like the skales of Sardinos pressed into a mass. 1690 Strutton Relat. Cruelties French 9 Our Breakfast, viz. a six Denire Loaf, and one Sirdena per Man. Ibid. 40 Our Supper here was a piece of Bread and two Sirdinasses. 1740 R. Brookes Art of Angling ii. xxxix. 157 There is another Sort of Fish sold instead of Anchovies call'd a Sardin, which is very probably a young Pilchard. 1777 Ann. Reg. 179 Figure to yourself these feeding on scanty portions of rotten sardines. 1850 L. Hunt Autobiog. II. xvii. 303 The anchovies, or Sardinias, that we eat. 1864 Mathias Sport in Himalayas (1865) 33 Unless I shoot something or other, I shall have to fall back on biscuits and sardines. 1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 253/2 Curing establishments were..set up.., and ‘Cornish sardines’, or ‘pilchards in oil’, were prepared..with.. success. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 215 Spiced Sardines..Mustard Sardines..Oil Sardines. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 307/2 Another of the Clupeidæ (C. scombrina) is the ‘oil-sardine’ of the eastern coast of the Indian Peninsula. |
b. U.S. (See
quots.)
| 1870 L. M. Alcott Old-Fashioned Girl xiii. 266 We've got sardines, crackers, and cheese. 1876 Goode Anim. Resources U.S. (1879) 186 (Smithsonian Coll. XXIII) Canned menhaden, in oil, ‘American sardines’. Canned herring, in oil, ‘Russian sardines’. 1884 Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 576 The Gulf Menhaden [Brevoortia patronus] has several vernacular names. At Key West it is called ‘Sardine’. Ibid. 611 A species of Anchovy, Stolephorus Browni, is extremely common about Fort Macon, where it is known as the ‘Sardine’. |
c. Austral. (See
quot.)
| 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Sardine,..a fresh-water fish, Chatöessus erebi, Richards., of the herring tribe. |
d. In
colloq. phr. to be packed (in) like sardines: to be crowded or confined tightly together, as sardines in a tin.
| 1911 W. Owen Let. 12 Sept. (1967) 80 The entrance hall..where for half an hour the boys stand waiting packed like sardines. 1922 Dialect Notes V. 172 We were packed in there like sardines in a box. 1974 Daily Mirror 11 Nov. 4/3 Lodgers at a lorry drivers' digs hit by a horror blaze were ‘packed in like sardines’, it was claimed yesterday. |
e. pl. (const. as sing.) A party game of hide-and-seek, in which each seeker joins the hider upon discovery until one seeker remains. Also
sardines-in-the (also a)-box (
U.S.).
| 1924 in Mendel & Meynell Weekend Bk. 241 Sardines is gaudier still. Only one player hides, all the others seek; the first to find him hides with him, the next..squashes in alongside,..till everybody's hiding in the same spot but one Seeker. 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby v. 82 ‘Hide-and-go-seek’ or ‘sardines-in-the-box’ with all the house thrown open to the game. 1935 N. Marsh Enter Murderer xx. 242 Give us all the light in the house. I refuse to play sardines with Mr. Hickson. 1959 J. Byrom Take only as Directed xiii. 147, I remembered the big linen-chest... I had once hidden there playing Sardines. 1960 N. Hale New England Girlhood 113 We used to play hide-and-go-seek, and a game called sardines-in-a-box. 1962 B. Cobb Murder: Men Only iv. 37 That game—‘Sardines,’ isn't it?—in which men hide with girls in cupboards. 1974 N. Freeling Dressing in Diamond 116 Tomorrow is a holiday... So we weekend... And play sardines. 1980 G. M. Fraser Mr. American xiii. 259 The festivities were strictly of the nursery variety..musical chairs, ‘sardines’, and hide-and-seek. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
sardine boat,
sardine can,
sardine factory,
sardine-fishery,
sardine fishing,
sardine fleet,
sardine sandwich,
sardine tin;
sardine-packed adj.;
sardine box, a box in which sardines are packed; also, an ornamental box to hold sardines for the table;
sardine shears (see
quot.);
sardine tongs, tongs used in serving sardines;
sardine-wise adv., like sardines in a box.
| 1927 L. Richardson Brittany & Loire 128 The early type of *sardine boat had no overhang—a long, straight keel, straight stem. 1976 F. Greenland Misericordia Drop ii. xiii. 161 A converted sardine-boat. |
| 1855 Harvard Mag. I. 266 O ghosts of innumerous *sardine-boxes, and emptied cracker-kegs. 1873 Leland Egypt. Sketch-bk. 24 The brass etiquette or advertisement-label cut from a sardine-box. 1892 Encycl. Pract. Cookery (ed. Garrett) II. 379/2 Ornamental Sardine-box. |
| 1977 Modern Railways Dec. 484/1 The first run was with an eight-car formation of this stock forming the 18.00 down Clacton packed to *sardine-can condition. 1979 P. Driscoll Pangolin ii. 22 The tram..was more crowded than usual..a clanking sardine can. |
| 1891 Chamb. Jrnl. 7 Mar. 155/2 The *sardine factories of Kent. |
| 1859 Jephson Brittany xii. 193 It sends several goats to the *Sardine-fishery. |
| 1775 J. Schaw Jrnl. Lady of Quality (1921) iv. 220 Above a hundred boats engaged in the *sardine fishing. 1939 H. M. Miner St. Denis ii. 23 There is still some commercial eel- and sardine-fishing, but this has declined. |
| 1942 ‘A. Bridge’ Frontier Passage iv. 65 The many-coloured dancing shapes of the *sardine-fleet. |
| 1917 Wyndham Lewis Let. Sept. (1963) 92, I am now absolutely *sardine-packed with the quintessence of the prosperous slums of a Protestant country. |
| 1954 B. Malamud in Partisan Rev. Nov.–Dec. 587 Leo fixed tea and a *sardine sandwich. 1978 F. Weldon Praxis vii. 42 She had lit the fire and made sardine sandwiches. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Sardine Shears,..scissors..for cutting open the tin boxes containing sardines. |
| 1890 W. Booth In Darkest Eng. ii. ii. 121 Most of the toys which are sold in France on New Year's Day are almost entirely made of *sardine tins. 1933 M. Allingham Sweet Danger xv. 187 ‘Leave that smelly little sardine tin [sc. a motor car] alone.’{ddd}‘The exhaust smells a little, but that's nothing.’ 1973 ‘A. Hall’ Tango Briefing x. 124 A rip-string and I pulled it, opening the polyester like a sardine-tin. |
| 1895 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List, *Sardine Tongs. |
| 1894 Du Maurier Trilby II. v. 120 The guests were not packed together *sardine-wise, as they are at most concerts. |
▪ III. sardine, v. colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
(
sɑːˈdiːn)
[f. sardine2.] trans. To pack closely, as sardines in a tin; to crowd, cram, press tightly.
| 1895 W. C. Gore in Inlander Dec. 114 Sardine,..to pack closely, side by side. ‘We sardined ourselves in front of the Law Building and howled.’ 1896 Advance 24 Dec. 916/2 There are 350 people outside.., and in some way we are going to sardine them in. 1940 H. Walpole Roman Fountain vii. 124 We were pressed back and sardined together. 1953 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 69 Mrs Probert..is the one love of his sea-life that was sardined with women. 1968 N.Y. Times 22 Apr. 36 Hundreds of thousands of people..will be sardined into the famous amusement park. 1977 New Yorker 11 July 79/1 Once sardined in place, they are subject to terrifying hazards in case of fire. |