a shimmer of herring

[Jonathan Lighter]

Earlier:

1869 in Edward FitzGerald _Works_ (2 vols.) II (N.Y.: Houghton, 1887) 480:
SUFFOLK SEA PHRASES...When the mackerel men — after many and many an empty
net — come to draw in one with a *shimmer* of fish in it, they say — There
's a white,/ And a shim,/ And another after him; /And a white,/ And a lily,
/And a Lily white, /And a scrunk ho!

JL


On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      a shimmer of herring
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not in OED nor, apparently, in any of the lists of designations of groups
> of animals.
>
> But quite authentic:
>
> 1935 _National Geographic_ LVI 238 [GB snippets]: A small "shimmer" of
> herring runs over the gunwales. Ibid. 240:  In many of the nets there had
> been a fairly good "*shimmer" of herring*; so we steamed into port with
> nearly 40 crans of herring to be unloaded into "swills," or baskets, and
> then auctioned off.
>
> 1955 _World Fishing_ IV 50 [GB snippet]: A fair shimmer of herring had
> meshed, but nothing big.
>
> 1981 E. M. Thomasson _Study of the Sea_  (Farnham, Surrey: Fishing News
> Books) 111: [A] shimmer of herring - every fish alive and undoubtedly newly
> swum.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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