Concept

Sardine

Résumé

Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term sardine was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious folk etymology says it comes from the Italian island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once supposedly abundant. The terms sardine and pilchard are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards. One criterion suggests fish shorter in length than are sardines, and larger fish are pilchards. The FAO/WHO Codex standard for canned sardines cites 21 species that may be classed as sardines. FishBase, a comprehensive database of information about fish, calls at least six species pilchards, over a dozen just sardines, and many more with the two basic names qualified by various adjectives. Sardine first appeared in English in the 15th century, a loanword from French sardine, derived from Latin sardina, from Ancient Greek σαρδίνη (sardínē) or σαρδῖνος (sardĩnos), said to be from the Greek Σαρδώ (Sardō), indicating the island of Sardinia. Athenaios quotes a fragmentary passage from Aristotle mentioning the fish σαρδῖνος (sardĩnos), referring to the sardine or pilchard. However, Sardinia is about distant from Athens; Ernest Klein in his Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1971) writes: "It is hardly probable that the Greeks would have obtained fish from so far as Sardinia at a time relatively so early as that of Aristotle." The flesh of some sardines or pilchards is a reddish-brown colour similar to some varieties of red sardonyx or sardine stone; this word derives from σαρδῖον (sardĩon) with a root meaning 'red' and (according to Pliny) possibly cognate with Sardis, the capital of ancient Lydia (now western Turkey) where it was obtained. However, the name may refer to the reddish-pink colour of the gemstone sard (or carnelian) known to the ancients. The phrase "packed like sardines" (in a tin) is recorded from 1911.

Source officielle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardine

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