stickleback

From dialectal stickle (“a prickle, spine, sting”), from Old English sticel + bæc. See stick (transitive verb) and compare banstickle.

stickleback (plural sticklebacks)

1. Any one of numerous species of small fish of the family Gasterosteidae. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct nests from weeds.

   Synonyms: (Britain, regional) minnow, sticklebag, sharpling

   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 1:

     [I]n my exile and irkeſome diſcontented abandonment, the ſillieſt millers thombe, or contemptible ſtickle-banck of my enemies, is as buſie nibbling about my fame, as if I were a deade man throwne amongeſt them to feede vpon.

• three-spined stickleback

• stickleback on Wikipedia.Wikipedia