Also 4–6 tenche, 5 tenych, 6 teyns(h)e. Pl. tenches, collect. tench. [a. OF. tenche (in Cotgr.; cf. Picard tenke in Godef., Compl.), mod.F. tanche (13th c. in Littré):—late L. tinca.]
1. A thick-bodied freshwater fish, Tinca vulgaris, allied to the carp, inhabiting still and deep waters; also, the flesh of this fish as food.
1390. Earl Derby’s Exp. (Camden), 23. Pro tenches et roches…, iiij scot. xij d. Ibid. (1392), 155. Pro xij tench et xij anguillis grossis, iij s vj d.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 614/24. Suctus, a tenche. Ibid., 615/43. Tengiagio, a tenche.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 485/2. Tenche, fysche, tencha.
1485. Nottingham Rec., III. 240. ij grete eles and a grete tenche.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin., V. 73. A preati Poole wherin be good Luces and Tenchis.
1653. Walton, Angler, ix. 175–6. The Tench is observed to love to live in Ponds; but if he be in a River, then in the still places of the River, he is observed to be a Physician to other fishes.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 49. The tench the fishes physician (so called because his slime is said to be very healing to wounded fishes).
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 80. Tench are partial to foul and weedy waters.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 86. The tench is a very curious fish in his habits.
2. attrib. and Comb., as tench-broth, -fishing; tench-weed, a local name of pondweed.
1598. Epulario, I j. Halfe a pint of Pike or *Tench broth.
1819. T. P. Lathy, The Angler, III., heading. Rules for Bream, Cheven, Barbel and *Tench Fishing.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 419. The season for Tench fishing in Germany is from July to October.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Tench-weed, a sort of pond-weed, having a slime or mucilage about it…. It is Potamogeton natans.
