"Word" words?

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:03 PM -0400 4/28/08, Mark Mandel wrote:
>On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Laurence Horn
><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>   Nice to know.  And for us non-Nufis, "codfish" is another instance of
>>   the phenomenon under discussion.  Curiously, though, *"scrodfish" is
>>   not--at least I've never heard it, even though scrod is a kind of cod
>>   (when it isn't figuring as the imperfect subjunctive of a certain
>>   verb in the punch line of a certain joke).
>
>Living in eastern Mass. for 20 years, I learned that "scrod" means
>"the fish of the day", whatever kind that happens to be.
>
>OED quoth: "A young cod weighing less than three pounds, esp. one that
>is split and fried or boiled. Also used of young forms of other
>fishes, esp. the haddock, or a fillet cut from one of these fishes."
>
>M-W pretty much agrees: "a young fish (as a cod or haddock);
>especially : one split and boned for cooking"
>
OK, not all scrods are cods.  But that still doesn't explain why we
have "codfish" (cakes, balls, etc.) but not "scrod fish", since all
scrods are (if not pseudo-imperfect-subjunctives) fish. Maybe there's
a land of Redun(dun)dantia inhabited by collie dogs punching in their
PIN numbers at  their ATM machines to purchase codfish balls and tuna
fish sandwiches made on challah bread...

LH

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