fishboy

English

Etymology

From fish +‎ boy.

Noun

fishboy (plural fishboys)

1. A boy who catches, prepares, or sells fish.

   Coordinate terms: fishgirl, fishman

   • 1853, Charles Reade, chapter XIII, in Christie Johnstone. A Novel., London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 217:

     Beeny retired before the thunder and lightning of indignant virtue. Then all the fishboys struck up a dismal chant of victory. “Yoo-hoo—Custy’s won the day—Beeny’s scair-tit,” going up on the last syllable.

   • 1994, Jennifer Armstrong, chapter 9, in Ann of the Wild Rose Inn (Wild Rose Inn; 2), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 144:

     “Have you seen these local fishboys running through their militia drills?” a midshipman asked his mates loudly when the song was done. “I swear it was a right entertainment.”

   • 2000, Peter Ackroyd, “Show! Show! Show! Show! Show!”, in London: The Biography, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, “London as theatre” section, page 156:

     In the early twentieth century it was noted that the bank messengers and fishboys, waiters and city policemen, still wore mid-Victorian costume as if to display their antique deference or respectability.

2. A merboy.

   Coordinate term: fishgirl

   • 2003, John Sam Jones, “The Fishboys of Vernazza”, in Fishboys of Vernazza, Cardigan, Ceredigion: Parthian, →ISBN, page 6:

     “Sometimes, when the sea is tempestoso, the fishboys come into the village through the grotto, and take away… how you say?” The charcoal embers in his eyes glow. “They take away the bad boys.”

   • 2013, Hannah Moskowitz, chapter 19, in Teeth, New York, N.Y.: Simon Pulse, →ISBN, page 198:

     She’s going to ask how long fishboys live, anyway, tell me that it isn’t forever.

   • 2014, Eleanor Swanson, “Exiles and Expatriates”, in Exiles and Expatriates: Stories, Hollywood, Calif.: Hollywood Books International, →ISBN, page 96:

     I remember the tales of children enticed to the floor of the sea by mermaids and fishboys in search of playmates.

References

• “fish boy” under “fish, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.