Forms: (1 cypera), 4 kypre, 6–7 kypper, 6–8 kepper, 6– kipper. [Etymology uncertain; it is also doubtful how sense A. 2, which goes with KIPPER v., is connected with 1, and indeed whether it is the same word.
At the approach of the breeding season, the lower jaw of the male salmon becomes hooked upward with a sharp cartilaginous beak known as the kip, which is used as a weapon by the fish when two or more fight for the same female; from this ‘kip,’ the name ‘kipper’ is currently explained; but this is not compatible with the identity of kipper and OE. cypera, ME. kypre, which, itself, though phonetically, unobjectionable, is also unproved, since the exact sense in which these words were used does not appear from the context. Moreover, in the quots. of 1376 and 1533–4, in B. 1, kipper appears to include both sexes.]
A. sb. 1. A name given to the male salmon (or sea trout) during the spawning season. (The female is then called a shedder.)
Some recent writers give as the meaning ‘the male salmon when spent after the spawning season,’ thus making the term equivalent to KELT; but this is not borne out by the earlier instances, which, when clear, evidently relate to the time when the fish is full of milt, and needs protection on account of its breeding value; nor does it harmonize with some later authorities, e.g., Jamieson, who says, ‘kipper, salmon in the state of spawning’; it is directly challenged by some (cf. quot. 1879); and it seems to have arisen from misapprehension of such qualifications as ‘unseasonable,’ ‘not wholesome,’ really applied to fish from the approach of the spawning season. For this Pennant seems largely responsible: see quot. 1766 in B. 1.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., xix. 12. Hwy ʓe nu ne settan on sume dune fiscnet eowru, þonne eow fon lysteð leax oððe cyperan.
c. 1567. Surv. Warkworth, in Hist. Northumbld. (1899), V. 151. The salmon fishing mainteyned, no kipper slayne alonge the water of Cockett.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., IV. iv. (1588), 450. Any Salmons or Trouts, out of season, that is being kippers or shedders.
1597. Sc. Acts Jas. V., § 72 (ed. Skene), heading, Of slauchter of redde fish or Kipper.
1624. in N. Riding Rec. (1885), III. II. 228. For killing salmon in time of kipper.
1705. Act 4 & 5 Anne, c. 21. The old Salmon or Kippers, which, during that Season [1 Jan. to 10 Mar.] are out of kind, and returning to the Sea.
1848. Chambers’ Inform. for People, I. 687. The adult fish [salmon] having spawned, being out of condition, and unfit for food … are … termed kelts; the male fish is sometimes also called a kipper, and the female a shedder or baggit.
1861. J. Brown, Horæ Subs., Ser. II. 243. The poaching weaver who had … leistered a prime kipper.
1879. T. T. Stoddart, in Academy, 30 Aug., 151/2. On the banks of our Scottish salmon rivers, the designation kipper is applied to the male fish before parting with its milt, when the beak is fully developed. After spawning, it shares along with the female fish the term kelt.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 14 Oct., 7/2. The heaviest salmon … was a fine ‘kipper,’ weighing close on 30 lb., which he captured on Saturday last [8th Oct.].
2. A kippered fish (salmon, herring, etc.); now esp. a herring so cured: see KIPPER v.
(It is doubtful whether the quots. from the Durham Acc. Rolls belong here; they may relate to the fish in sense 1, without reference to any particular mode of preparation.)
1326. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 15. In 11 Kypres emp., 3s. 4d. Ibid. (1340), 37. In 6 kypres emp. et 1 salmone salso, 2s. 2d.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., III. 336. Preserving Salmon by making it into what they call Kipper: This is done by dividing it in the Middle from Head to Tail, and drying it slowly before a Fire.
1815. Scott, Guy M., v. Ye’re no eating your meat; allow me to recommend some of the kipper. It was John Hay that catcht it.
1824. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1882), I. 263. His heart … is as dry as a Greenock kipper.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 231. Some people, in order to give the kipper a peculiar taste … carefully smoke it with peat-reek or the reek of juniper bushes.
B. adj. (attrib. use of sb.)
1. Said of a male salmon (or sea trout), at the breeding season: see A. 1. In quots. 1376 and 1533–4 ‘kipper’ appears to include both sexes.
[1376. Rolls Parlt., II. 331/2. Qe null Salmon soit pris en Tamise entre Graveshend & le Pount de Henlee sur Tamise en temps q’il soit kiper: C’est assavoir, entre les Festes de l’Invention del Crois, & le Epiphanie.]
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 7. That no maner of persone or persones … frome the feaste of the exaltation of the holy crosse to the feaste of Seynt martyn in wynter … kyll or distroye any Salmons not in season called kepper Salmons.
1558. Act 1 Eliz., c. 17 § 1. Any Salmons or Trouts, not being in Season, being Kepper-Salmons or Kepper-Trouts, Shedder-Salmons or Shedder-Trouts.
1603. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1891), 118. In wynter, when … they are found kipper, leane and vnholesome.
1653. Walton, Angler, vi. 136. The He Salmon … is more kipper, & less able to endure a winter in the fresh water, than the She is.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1769), III. 242. After spawning they [salmon] become very poor and lean, and then are called kipper.
2. transf. Shaped like the lower jaw of a kipper salmon: see etymological note above.
1822. Hogg, Perils of Man, II. ii. 50. Tam and Gibbie, with their long kipper noses, peeping over his shoulder.
C. attrib. and Comb., as † kipper-time, the period of close-time for salmon.
1706. Phillips, Kipper-Time, a Space of Time between the Festival of the Invention of the H. Cross May, 3d. and Twelfth-Day; during which, Salmon-fishing in the River Thames was forbidden by Rot. Parl. 50 Edw. 3. [See quot. 1376 in B. 1.]
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, III. xii. 171. The ould kipper-box rolling on a block for a boat at sea—do you mind it?
1899. Daily News, 27 Oct., 2/3. At Great Yarmouth, where there are some 350 boats and some 4,000 fishermen and kipper-girls engaged in the great herring fishery…. Some 800 girls are curing the enormous catches for the Continental and the other markets of the world.
