Trout sb.¹

Forms: 1–2 truht, 3 troit, 4 trouȝt(e, trouhte, troȝte, 4–5 trote, 4–6 trute, trowte, 4–7 troute, 5 trowȝt(e, trowyt, troughte, trouth(e, troyte, (tryotht), 6–7 trowt, trought, (7 trowet, troot), 6– trout. [OE. truht, ad. late L. tructus, tructa, truta, trutta, etc. = Gr. τρώκτης gnawer, also the name of a sea-fish, f. τρώγειν to gnaw; the forms troit, troute, etc., correspond to OF. troite, troute, etc., F. truite (13th c.).]

  1.  A well-known freshwater fish of the genus Salmo, esp. S. fario, the common trout, inhabiting most rivers and lakes of the temperate or colder parts of the northern hemisphere; it is distinguished by numerous spots of red and black on its sides and head, and is greatly valued as a sporting fish and on account of its edible quality. See also 3.

  † Whole or sound as a trout: cf. sound as a roach (ROACH sb. 1 b). Obs.

c. 1050.  Suppl. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 180/37. Tructa, truht.

a. 1100.  Ags. Voc., ibid., 319/15. Tructa, truht.

1290.  in Archæologia, XV. 354. Pro uno paner. gurnardi … pro iiij troites.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11884 (Cott.). Bi þat þou þar-of cum vte Þou sal be hale sum ani trute [v.r. troute].

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, II. 577. Gynnys, to tak geddis & salmonys, Trowtis, elys and als menovnys.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 423. Perche and trouȝtis.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum (1862), 50. Trowȝtes … Wele soþun and hakked.

a. 1450.  Fysshynge wyth an angle (1883), 22. For þe Trowte. The trowyt ys a deyntet fyche and a fre bytyng.

c. 1518.  Skelton, Magnyf., 1624. I am forthwith as hole as a troute.

1525.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. cxiii. 325. Pastyes of samonde, troutes, and elys, wraped in towels.

1589.  [? Lyly], Pappe w. Hatchet, 3. I … will giue them line enough like a trowte.

a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, III. ii. Leave off your tickling of young heirs like Trouts.

1635.  Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 347. When we speak of one who is sound indeed, we say that he is sound as a Trout.

a. 1677.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. 200. River-Fish, as Trouts … will alter their figure, some for the better and some for the worse, being put into Ponds.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 253. They sportive wheel, or sailing down the stream Are snatched immediate by the quick-eyed trout.

1735.  Somerville, Chase, IV. 371. The crimson-spotted Trout, the River’s Pride, And Beauty of the Stream.

1762.  Public Advertiser, 16 Sept., 2/2. She has also a Mark resembling that of a Trout upon one of her Thighs.

1790.  Scott, Lett. to W. Clerk, 3 Sept., in Lockhart. Two miles from an excellent water for trouts.

1839.  Douglas, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. 185. The trouts were scarcely covered in the small pools.

1860.  Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 6. The streams … where the trout displays his speckled side as he leaps from pool to pool.

1885.  Good Words, 255/2. He may guddle trouts in a stream.

1903.  Iowa State Bystander, 10 July, 3/4. The chances are the trout [at 15 pounds] is the largest rainbow ever pulled out of the waters of western Washington. It was a beauty.

  b.  collective sing. (in sporting use taking the place of the pl.).

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, II. 105 b. The pond will moreouer keepe Shote, Seale, Trought, and Sammon, in seasonable plight, but not in their wonted reddish graine.

1609.  in Craven Gloss. (1828), 33 pearch and troot from Mawater for my Ld. Judge.

1789.  Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 41. The trout … there have been over praised.

1849.  G. P. R. James, Woodman, ii. She was exceedingly fond of trout.

1875.  W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 24. Pike and trout are to be had in the lochs.

  2.  Used as a name of various fish (chiefly Salmonidæ) resembling the trout in appearance or habits. Now local.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xv. 164. I have not seene any Besugues there, nor trowis.

1854.  Badham, Halieut., 313. Of salars caught in the Ribble, those of the first year are called smolts; those of the second year, sprods; those of the third, trouts.

1884.  Mather, in Century Mag., April, 908/1. The name of ‘trout’ is also applied … to a salt-water fish called ‘squeteague.’

1891.  G. H. Kingsley, Sport & Trav. (1900), 456. Char, known to the natives [of Colorado] by the name of trout.

1897.  Outing (U.S.), XXX. 217/2. In the South, he [the black bass] is commonly called ‘trout.’

  3.  With defining prefix, as the name of various species of the genus Salmo (or of the allied genus Salvelinus), and occasionally of other genera.

  Bastard trout (U.S.), a squeteague or weak-fish, Cynoscion nothus; brook trout, Salmo fario; in U.S., S. fontinalis, or S. irideus, the rainbow trout; brown trout, S. fario; Dolly Varden trout (U.S.), Salvelinus Malma; grey trout, Salmo trutta; in U.S. the squeteague; lake trout, S. ferox (the great lake trout); in U.S., (a) S. confinis (the North American lake trout), inhabiting the deepest waters of the great lakes; (b) = next; Mackinaw or Namaycush trout, S. Namaycush, of Lake Huron and Lake Superior; rainbow trout, S. irideus, a Californian species, now introduced in British trout-streams; red-beliled trout, the char, S. salvelinus; also S. or Fario erythrogaster of the lakes of New York State and Pennsylvania; red-spotted trout, S. fontinalis or S. salvelinus; rock trout, Chirus constellatus (ROCK sb.¹ 9 d); † skegger trout = SKEGGER; speckled trout, S. fontinalis; white trout, (a) a variety of S. fario; (b) the weak-fish (Cynoscion nothus). See also BULL-TROUT, SALMON-TROUT, SEA-TROUT.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 228. Both the Salmon and gray trouts are very pleasant, and good for sound persons, but in agues they are not comparable to the Perch.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 163. Trutta Lacustris, the Lake-Trout.

1836.  Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, II. 31. The Grey Trout. Ibid., 60. The Great Lake Trout of Loch Awe … was shortly noticed by Pennant … as a native of Ullswater Lake in Cumberland, and of Lough Neagh in Ireland. Ibid., 74. This species has been called a Red-bellied Trout.

1861.  Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 109 § 4. All migratory fish of the genus salmon,… that is to say, salmon … harvest cock, sea trout, white trout, sewin, buntling [etc.].

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 322. It is … rank folly to allow so great a delicacy as the speckled brook trout (Salmo fontinalis) to become extinct. Ibid., 330. The commission has … bred salmon, trout, lake trout (Salmo toma), and land-locked salmon (S. Gloveri).

1881.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 115. The Grey Trout (Salmo Cambricus).

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 204. Brook Trout, Lake Trout,… Rainbow Trout, Rangeley Trout.

1884.  Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim., 468. According to the latest system … the second group [of the old genus Salmo] includes the Chars, or Red-spotted Trout, and the gray-spotted species known as Salmon Trout, or Lake Trout. These are assigned to the genus Salvelinus. Ibid., 504. The Dolly Varden Trout—Salvelinus Malma,… known in the mountains as ‘Lake Trout,’ ‘Bull Trout.’ ‘Speckled Trout,’ and ‘Red-Spotted Trout.’

1884.  St. James’s Gaz., 23 Feb., 5/2. Like mice in a house, the little brook-trout are often almost under your feet.

1888.  Goode, Amer. Fishes, 120. The Silver Squeteague, Cynoscion nothum, called at Charleston the ‘Bastard Trout.’ The ‘White Trout’ … is caught with hook and line.

  † 4.  slang, originally in the alliterative phrase true or trusty trout, a confidential friend or servant; so humble trout. Obs.

c. 1661.  Roxb. Ball. (1883), IV. 518. I was a trusty trout In all that I went about.

1682.  New News fr. Bedlam, 30. They are all very honest Fellows, true Trouts.

1688.  Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, I. i. Your humble Trout, good noble squire.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as trout-angler, -angling, -brook, farm, -hole, -hook, -line, -net, ova, -preserve, -rod, -spawn, -spear, -stream, -worm; objective and obj. gen., as trout-breeder, -catcher, -fisher, -fishing, monger, -pirate, -rearing, -tickler; also trout-colored, -famous, -haunted adjs.; trout-like adj.

1538.  Elyot, Fuscina … a troute speare, an yele speare.

1555.  [see EEL-SPEAR].

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 653. Kennet, whose Trout-famous Drift … by Hungerford doth hasten.

1653.  R. Sanders, Physiogn., 35. A greenish eye, a trout-nose, a great mouth.

1653.  Walton, Angler, V. 126. I shall tel you a little more of Trout fishing before I speak of the Salmon. Ibid., 128. In Hamp-shire … they use to catch Trouts in the night by the light of a Torch or straw, which when they have discovered, they strike with a Trout spear.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 140. [These] may be stiled the Trout-kind.

1727.  Bailey, vol. II., Trout-coloured (spoken of Horses) is White speckled with Spots of Black, Bay, or Sorrel, particularly about the Head and Neck.

1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln., 4. A narrow vale, through which runs a trout stream.

1807.  W. Irving, Salmag., xi. 2 July (1855), 115. Trout-fishing was my uncle’s favourite sport.

1839.  T. C. Hofland, Brit. Angler’s Man., ii. 11. He [the peacock red worm] … is a good trout-worm.

1845.  J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, vii. 78. They can be caught with small trout hooks, carefully baited.

1868.  Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 327. I hatched about five hundred thousand trout last season, and sold about five hundred thousand impregnated trout spawn. Ibid., 328. A fountain capable of filling constantly a two-inch pipe will sustain a trout preserve which may prove a source of pleasure and profit. Ibid., 337. Experimental and initiatory practice in trout-rearing is becoming common upon Long Island.

1875.  Argus & Patriot (VT), 22 July, 4/6. Go where you may, to our trout brooks on this side of the mountain, you will find boys catching and boxing up trout, some having a thousand in a box, which they sell to the trout mongers.

1883.  W. E. Norris, No New Thing, I. i. 9. His gun, and a trout-rod, and some other things.

1884.  Jefferies, Life of Fields, 199. The swan is a well-known trout-pirate.

1887.  Hissey, Holiday on Road, 7. By the side of a trout-haunted stream.

1875.  Santa Fe Daily New Mexican, 22 March, 1/4. The first raid under the new fish laws was made on the trout mongers to-day.

1894.  Field, 9 June, 833/3. Fine trout given our society by Mr. A., the trout breeder.

1894.  Logansport (IN) Reporter, 3 Dec., 2/3. Drying the blanket before the blaze, he fell to rubbing down the horse, who was a splendid trout-colored stallion, white muzzled, with dark stainings on his legs.

1897.  Outing (U.S.), XXX. 324/2. In this place one can … trace … the trout-brook to its source.

1904.  Gallichan, Fishing Spain, 185. The Portuguese peasant lads are expert trout-ticklers.

1904.  Pilot, April, 330/1. It is clear … that the really desirable requies senectæ will be afforded by a trout farm.

1906.  Westm. Gaz., 28 April, 14/3. The appearance of the mayfly … is eagerly looked forward to every year by the trout-angler.

1910.  H. T. Sheringham, in Encycl. Brit., II. 28/2. (Angling) Grayling injure a trout stream by devouring trout-ova and trout-food.

  b.  Special Combs.: trout-fly, (a) the may-fly; (b) an artificial fly for trout-fishing: trout-louse, a fish-louse parasitic on the trout, also called sug; trout-perch, the black bass (local, U.S.); also, a trout-like fish (Percopsis guttatus) of the rivers and Great Lakes of U.S., having the mouth and scales like those of a perch; trout-spoon, a small spoon-bait for trout-fishing (Cent. Dict., 1891); trout-stone, Min. (G. forellenstein) = TROCTOLITE.

1744–50.  W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., III. II. xiii. 84. The Caddis or Trout Fly,… certainly the best natural Baits of all others for taking Trouts.

1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 109. They [salmon] will rise at anything gaudy, and where they are plenty, at Trout flies.

1888.  Goode, Amer. Fishes, 466. The young fish rise freely to trout-flies in rapid water.

1910.  H. T. Sheringham, in Encycl. Brit., II. 28/2. Grayling will take most small trout-flies.

1653.  Walton, Angler, iii. 90. In winter … many of them have sticking on them Sugs, or *Trout lice, which is a kind of worm.

1883.  Century Mag., July, 376/2. A description of a Carolina bass was sent to Lacépède under the local name of trout, or *trout-perch, who accordingly named it salmoides, meaning trout-like.

1892.  Trout-stone [see TROCTOLITE].

  Hence Trouted a. [cf. F. porcelaine truitée], see quot.; Troutful a., full of or abounding in trout; Troutless a., without trout, devoid of trout (whence Troutlessness); Trouty, a troutlet.

1783.  Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, III. 153. The *trouted china, which no doubt is called so from the resemblance it bears to the scales of a trout.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Hants. (1662), II. 1. Clear and fresh rivulets of *troutful water.

1891.  Atkinson, Moorland Par., 197. Our troutful little stream of the Esk.

1849.  Leicester Chron., 4 Aug., 4/1.

1865.  Kingsley, in Life & Lett. (1879), II. 180. I catch a trout now and then … so I am not left troutless.

1904.  Gallichan, Fishing Spain, 15. He maintains that the Bidasoa will be troutless in two years.

1879.  Daily News, 25 Nov., 5/2. Dynamite, disease, pollution of rivers, have destroyed their thousands since Thomas Stoddart wrote a sad song on the *troutlessness of Yarrow.

1848.  Fraser’s Mag., XXXVIII. 73. My wilfulness that bright day … was rewarded with a few *trouties.