fingerling

See also: Fingerling

English
fish (sense 1)
fingerling potatoes (sense 2)

Etymology

From Middle English fyngyrlynge, equivalent to finger +‎ -ling, from having the size of a human finger.

Noun

fingerling (plural fingerlings)

  1. (zoology) A juvenile fish that has developed scales and working fins.
  2. A type of small potato grown primarily in North America.
  3. An infant weasel, stoat, ferret; esp. weasels.
  4. (by extension) Any finger-sized version of something typically larger.
    • 2011, Gregory Maguire, “The Patchwork Conscience of Oz”, in Out of Oz (The Wicked Years), New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 160:
      Oh, but those little crab-lingered fingerlings really wanted to get in! Now some were trying to claw up through an old knothole whose bole had aged and didn’t sit true in the plank. […] But here came the dwarf opening her door, and the spiderlets melted away.

Further reading
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