sparling

See also: Sparling

English

Etymology

Middle English sperlynge, shortened from Old French esperlinge, a Germanic borrowing, found in German Spiering, Spierling, Middle Low German spirling, Middle Dutch spierling, suffixed from the word now Dutch spier (“spar, pole; muscle”). See also sparrow for a homonymic bird-name.

Noun

sparling (plural sparlings)

1. A European smelt (Osmerus eperlanus).
2. A young salmon.
3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (UK, Scotland, dialect) A tern (Sterninae spp.).

See also

• spurling
• sperling
• spirling

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sparling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• graplins, laspring, springal