[Of doubtful etymology.
The comb. fish-paunch, synonymous with sense 1, suggests that the word was a transferred use of FISH sb.1; the appropriateness of the name on this supposition is not obvious, but the same may be said of many nautical terms of undisputed etymology. On the other hand, it is possible that the word is a. F. fiche (see next); it is not known that the F. word was ever used in sense 1, but its etymological sense is ‘a means of fixing.’]
1. Naut. ‘A long piece of hard wood, convex on one side and concave on the other’ (Adm. Smyth), used to strengthen a mast or yard; a fish-piece.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 59/3. We put hard hands on Jury Masts and Fishes.
1692. in Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., I. xvi. 79. Lash the Fish on to the Mast, that is bind it to the Mast.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. vii. 367. His fore-mast was broken asunder above the upper-deck partners, and was only kept together by the fishes which had been formerly clapt upon it.
1749. Chalmers, Phil. Trans., XLVI. 367. There were some of the Spikes, that nail the Fish of the Mainmast, drawn with such Force out of the Mast, that they stuck in the Main Deck so fast, that the Carpenter was obliged to take an Iron Crow to get them out.
1854. G. B. Richardson, Univ. Code, V. 2143. Can you let me have a fish for my mast?
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 73. One fore and one aft fish dowelled and bolted to spindle and side-trees.
transf. 1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xvi. (1859), 410. Out of the litter a black paw, with fishes or splints whipped round it by a band of spunyarn, protruded, and kept swaying about like a pendulum.
2. A flat plate of iron, wood, etc., laid upon a beam, rail, etc., or across a joint, to protect or strengthen it; in railway construction = fish-plate.
1847. Specif. Adams & Richardson’s Patent, No. 11 715. 2. To connect the two iron rails together we use wood or iron fishes.
1875. R. F. Martin, trans. Havrez’s Winding Mach., 4. By menas of buntons place 1 metre (39.4 in.) apart, centre to centre, and rods as strong as these, tied together by oak fishes of the same scantling as the rods, a system of guides is obtained of extraordinary strength.
1875–6. Proc. Inst. Civ. Engin., XLVI. 202. The original road had been laid with fishes 16 inches long.
3. attrib. and Comb., as fish-bar, -beam, -bolt, -hoop, (see quots.); fish-joint, a joint or splice made with fish-plates (also fish-plate joint); hence fish-joint v., -jointed, -jointing; fish-front, -paunch, = sense 1; fish-piece = 1, 2 above; fish-plate, one of two plates bolted together through the ends of two rails on either side of their meeting-point to cover and strengthen the joint; hence fish-plating.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 872/1. *Fish-bar. The splice-bar which breaks the joint of two meeting objects, as of railroad rails or scarfed timber.
1892. Northumb. Gloss., s.v. A *‘fish beam’ is a composite beam, where an iron plate is sandwiched between two wood beams.
1875. J. W. Barry, Railw. Appliances (1890), 61. The nuts of the *fish-bolts are apt to shake loose with the jar of passing trains.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., Fish-bolt, a bolt employed for fastening fish plates and rails together.
1815. Falconer’s Marine Dict. (ed. Burney), *Fish-front, or Paunch is a long piece of oak or fir timber, convex on one side, and concave on the other, used to strengthen the lower masts or yards, when they are sprung.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 24. At the lower end of the fish is driven on a hoop, called a *fish-hoop, which is beat close to the sides of the mast.
1849. J. Samuel, in Proc. Inst. Civ. Engin., VIII. 265. A number of these *fish joints had been laid down.
1868. Daily News, 5 Nov. The almost universal adoption of the new ‘fish-joint rail.’
1892. Northumb. Gloss., 286. A ‘fish joint’ is a joint made by bolting or riveting a plate on each side near the ends.
1855. Dempsey, Pract. Railw. Engineer (ed. 4), 265. A portion only of the lines of this kingdom being as yet *fish-jointed…. It is obvious that with the same rail a fish-jointed road is much stronger. Ibid., 267. Mr. Ashcroft has accomplished the *fish-jointing of 150 miles of line without accident.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Fish-piece.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., vi. 102. The fish pieces or covering plates worked inside the liners.
1855. Dempsey, Pract. Railw. Engineer, 268. The chairs are cast so that one side forms a *fish-plate.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 44. Up to the year 1847 the ends of the rails rested in joint chairs, but in that year Mr. Bridges Adams introduced the suspended joint with fish-plates, by which a much greater degree of elasticity was imparted to the permanent way.
1889. Life of Vignoles, xiii. 183. Vignoles always claimed to have been one of the earliest to introduce the fish-plate joint.
1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 437. An exemplification of this fish-joint or *fish-plating is to be seen on any railway.
