mort "woman"--article deriving this word from mort "salmon" (was: Irish apples)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>     "OED2 presents cant _mort_ (sb. #4) as meaning 'girl, woman' and
>being of unknown origin.  But I believe a lead can be furnished by an
>awareness of the now dated German slang _Backfisch_ 'frying fish,';
>cf. its appearance in 'Meine erste Liebe,' (part of
>_Lausbubengeschichten_) by the Bavarian author Ludwig Thoma.
>
>    "_Backfisch_ 'teenage girl' is known to derive from the idea of
>young fish past the throw-back stage being more suited for frying --
>and hence eating -- than the adult fish.  German clearly indicates
>that men could liken women to fish; and this is part of the larger
>picture of men describing women with food imagery, e.g. _a peach_, _a
>tomato_, _a dish_.

How surely is this explanation of "Backfisch" = "teenaged girl" known?

Here is a discussion ...

http://www.ceryx.de/sprache/wd_backfisch.htm

... in which (inter alia) a derivation of this "Backfisch" from English is
put forth:

<<Das Wort "Backfisch" kommt vom englischen backfish: Ein junger Fisch, der
beim Einholen der Netze back, also zurück ins Wasser geworfen wird, weil er
aufgrund seiner geringen Größe auf dem Markt noch nichts taugt.>>

... that is, the Backfisch = [throw-]back-fish is too small to keep (if I'm
reading it right) ... as the 'bobbysoxer" is insufficiently mature for the
man's presumptive interests, I suppose.

[Note that "backfisch" (but not "backfish") appears in OED and MW3.]

Anyway, I'll freely grant that "young fish" > "[young] gal" is believable.

>        "Now, it turns out that _mort_ is also a term for a salmon,
>specifically a salmon in its third year (see OED2, sb. #3).  And a
>check of Chambers 1753 _Encyclopedia_ shows that the fish becomes
>officially a salmon in its sixth year;  i.e. a mort is neither very
>young nor very old:
>
>    "(under salmon): 'The salmon in the different stages of its life
>and growth has different names.  The Latins call it when young
>_salar_, when of middle growth _sario_ or _fario_, and only when
>fully grown _salmon_.  In England the fishermen have names for it in
>every year of its growth.  In the first it is called a _smelt_, in
>the second a _sprod_, in the third a _mort_, in the fourth a _fork
>tail_, ...

Compare modern "split-tail" = "woman" [crude], also a fish!

>... and in the fifth a _half-fish_;  finally, in the sixth it is
>called a _salmon_.  This is the common agreement of our fishermen,
>though there are some who say the _salmon_ comes much sooner to full
>growth.'
>
>        "The first attestation of _mort_ as a fish is 1530; as a
>girl/woman: 1561-75.  So chronologically there are no problems with
>the suggestion of _mort_ 'salmon to woman' in cant."

But whence "mort" = "young salmon"? Maybe the connection could be the other
way around?

>... if "mort"  (woman) is in fact derived
>from Irish Mór te  (fiery passion, high spirits, warm affection), one
>would expect this semantic development to have occurred first within
>Irish.

I agree. A very strained derivation is this Irish one, without some
additional support, IMHO.

-- Doug Wilson