For forms see STOCK sb.1 and FISH sb.1; also 3 -fhis, 4 fihs, -fys, 5 -fisch(e, -physhe, pl. -fyscheys. [Prob. a. (M)Du. stokvisch = MHG. stocvisch (G. stockfisch), MSw. stokfisker (Sw. stockfisk, Da. stokfisk); f. Du. stok STOCK sb.1; the reason for the designation is variously conjectured.] A name for cod and other gadoid fish cured by splitting open and drying hard in the air without salt.
1290. in J. Stevenson, Docum. illustr. Hist. Scot. (1870), I. 139. Pro cc stokfhis, xviij s.
1350. in Registr. Monast. de Winchelcumba (1892), 264. Dimidium centum duri piscis de stocfish, videlicet coursfish.
1436. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 191. Of the comodius stokfysshe of Yselonde.
1450–4. in Oxf. Stud. Soc. & Legal Hist. (1914), IV. 199. ixc Stockfisshes and an C iiijxx Saltfisshes.
1555. Eden, Decades, 273. From hense [Norway] is brought into all Europe a fysshe of the kindes of them whiche wee caule haddockes or hakes indurate and dryed with coulde, and beaten with clubbes or stockes, by reason whereof the Germayns caule them stockefysshe.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 99. In Norway they catch great store of Stockfish, which they beate with cudgels, and dry with cold.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 18. (Norway) Stock-fish in great numbers are caught and dried upon the rocks without salting.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. ii. 22. The stockfish, dried in the open air, without salt.
b. In figurative, proverbial and jocular expressions. (Often with reference to the beating of the fish before cooking.)
1515. Barclay, Egloges, i. (1570), A ij. And as a stockfishe wrinkled is my skinne.
1552. Huloet, s.v. Beate, Beate often as a stockfyshe is beaten, retundo.
1560. Becon, Catech., VI. Wks. I. 522 b. Those parents … whiche furiously rage against their children, and without consideration beat them as stockfish.
1575. R. B., Apius & Virginia (facs.), B j. As stout as a Stockefish.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. ii. 79. By this hand, Ile … make a Stockfish of thee.
1666. Third Advice to Painter, 30. Beat him to Stock-fish, else he’l ne’r be good.
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, V. ii. As dead as a Herring, a Stock-fish or Door-Nail.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lvi. Old John sat, mute as a stock-fish.
1859. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxxvii. London is as dead as a stock-fish.
c. In contemptuous address to a person.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 271. Away … you stocke-fish.
d. attrib. and Comb., as stockfish-bone, -monger, -sound; stockfish-hammer, a hammer for beating the fish before cooking; † stockfish-wood, an American wood resembling logwood.
1299. in R. R. Sharpe, Cal. Lond. Lett.-Bk. C. (1901), 55. Stocfismongers.
1350–1. in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), I. 161. In Cvj stokfisshsondis emptis pro glu inde faciendo.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 23. A stokefisshe boon in dirkeness ȝeveth a light.
1480–1. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 97. ij Stokfisshammers.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. 57. Of these sorts Bloodwood and Stock-fish-wood are of the natural growth of America.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 6. Robert March, a stock-fish monger.
Hence † Stockfished pa. pple., made hard as a stock-fish.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. i. 68. So verily I believe, that our Knight’s parts would oe stockfisht, and solidated by continuall contusions, threshings, and quassations.
