Also 6–7 bacalow, 8 baccalio, -alao, 9 bacallao. [a. Sp. bacallao cod-fish, according to early navigators the native name in Newfoundland or the adjacent mainland.] Cod-fish.
1555. R. Eden, New Worlde, III. vi. (1885), 161. Cabot him selfe named those landes Baccallaos, bycause that in the seas ther about he found so great multitudes of certeyne bigge fysshes … which thinhabitantes caule Baccallaos.
1598. Stow, Surv. (Strype, 1754), II. V. xvii. 362/2. Merchants trading in Spain and Portugal [export] … Pilchards, Salmon, Poor Jack or Bacalow.
1762. Gentl. Mag., 121. Fishing upon the banks of Newfoundland for baccalao.
1765. Lond. Chron., 14 Feb., 160. Large Baccalio and fine old Ling.
b. Bacalao-bird:
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea, 44. Guillemots’ eggs, in Newfoundland well known by the name of Baccalao-birds’ eggs.
