Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Stok-fisch, n. Also: stoke-, stock- and fis(c)he, fysche, (stoque fix). [ME and e.m.E. stokfhis (1290), stokfys (1347), stocfish (1350), stokfissh- (1350-1) ‘a name for cod and other gadoid fish cured by splitting open and drying hard in the air without salt’ (OED), (M)Du. stokvisch ‘stock-fish, split cod, hard fish; (herring) hake’ (Kramers' Engelsch Woordenboek).] One or other of the larger species of white fish (? hake) split and dried in the air without salt.coll. 1444 Exch. R. V 155.
Pro octinginta de lez stokfische 1457 Exch. R. VI 305.
Pro trescentis aridis mullonibus dictis stokfisch 1457 Exch. R. VI 363.
Pro centum piscibus aridis dictis stokfysche 1458 Elgin Rec. I 34.
Pro piscibus qui dicuntur stokfisch 1482 (c1580) Edinb. B. Rec. I 45.
Of the j^c grete fisch, as keling, stok-fisch, leyngis, salmound and siclike fische, vnbarralit iiij d. 1498 Cal. St. P. (Spanish) I 172.
[Great quantities of salmon, herring and a kind of dried fish, which they call] stoque fix [are exported] 1513 Treas. Acc. IV 492.
Resauit fra ane Franche man of were … and send to the Margret, iij^m and a half stok fysche 1524–5 Wigtownshire Chart. 64. 1603 Reg. Great S. 516/1. 1612 Bk. Rates (Halyb.) 305.
Fishes called stockfish 1631 Buccleuch Household Bk. 1 Oct.
Stock fische 1631 Buccleuch Household Bk. 3 Oct.
Stokefischepl. 1445 Exch. R. V 188.
Pro quingentis stok fischiz c1650-1700 Descr. Zetland 41.
Of the fishes they take some they salt, some they hang in skeos, till they be sour, … Here they make no stock-fishes c1650-1700 Descr. Zetland 52.
Of the fishes, which they take … such as they design for merchant-ware, some they salt, some they hang fresh in skeos, till they be perfectly dry: & these they call stock-fishes, whereof they have great plenty here