crayfish

crayfish

English

Some crayfish.

Alternative forms

• crawfish; craifish (obsolete), crafish, crefish (obsolete); crevis, crevyssh (obsolete)

Etymology

Alteration (by folk etymology, influenced by fish) of Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-, *gerebʰ- (“to scratch, crawl”). Akin to Old High German krebiz ("edible crustacean, crab"; > Modern German Krebs (“crab”)), Middle Low German krēvet (“crab”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeɪˌfɪʃ/

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Noun

crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)

1. Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamily Astacoidea or Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
   1. (New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
3. (Australia) A freshwater crayfish (family Parastacidae), such as the gilgie, marron, or yabby.
4. (Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family (Scyllaridae).

Usage notes

The term crayfish predominates in the region of New England and in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In much of the United States—in the South, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the Midwest and in the West—crawfish predominates. In a belt stretching across Kentucky through Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in Oregon and northern California, the term crawdad predominates.[1]

Synonyms

• (freshwater crustaceans): crawdad, crawldad, crawfish, crawlfish, mudbug, yabby (Australia)
• (slipper lobster): Moreton Bay bug (Australia)

Derived terms

• crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci)
• crayfish snake
• marbled crayfish
• signal crayfish

 

Translations

freshwater crustacean resembling lobster

Afrikaans: kreef Albanian: gaforre (sq) m Armenian: խեցգետին (hy) (xecʿgetin), ռակ (hy) (ṙak) (Armenia, colloquial) Azerbaijani: xərçəng (az) Bashkir: ҡыҫала (qıθala) Basque: ibai-karramarro Belarusian: рак m (rak) Bislama: naora Bulgarian: ре́чен рак m (réčen rak), рак (bg) m (rak) Burmese: ပုစွန် (my) (pu.cwan) Catalan: cranc de riu m Catawba: iise Cherokee: ᏥᏍᏛᎾ (tsisdvna) Chinese: Mandarin: 小龍蝦／小龙虾 (zh) (xiǎolóngxiā), 蝲蛄 (zh) (làgǔ) Choctaw: shakchi Coptic: ⲭⲁⲣⲕⲓⲛⲟⲥ m (kharkinos), ⲕⲁⲣⲕⲓⲛⲟⲥ m (karkinos) Czech: rak (cs) m Danish: krebs c Dutch: rivierkreeft (nl) m Esperanto: kankro Estonian: jõevähk Finnish: rapu (fi) French: écrevisse (fr) f (freshwater), langoustine (fr) f (saltwater) Georgian: მდინარის კიბო (mdinaris ḳibo) German: Flusskrebs (de) m Alemannic German: Chräps m Greek: ποταμοκαραβίδα f (potamokaravída) Ancient: κάραβος m (kárabos) Guaraní: japeusa Hebrew: סרטן הנהרות‎ m Hindi: चिंगट (hi) (ciṅgaṭ), क्रेफ़िश (krefiś) Hungarian: rák (hu), folyami rák Icelandic: vatnakrabbi m Ido: kankro (io) Italian: aragosta (it) f, gambero (it) m, gambero di fiume m Japanese: 蝲蛄 (ja) (zarigani), ザリガニ (ja) (zarigani) Kazakh: шаян (şaän) Khmer: បង្កង (km) (bɑngkɑɑng), កំពឹស (km) (kɑmpɨh) Korean: 가재 (ko) (gajae) Kyrgyz: рак (ky) (rak) Lao: ໂກ່ມ (kōm), ກຸ້ງ (lo) (kung) Latgalian: viezs m Latin: cancer (la) m, carabus m Latvian: vēzis (lv) m Lithuanian: vėžys m Macedonian: рак m (rak) Maori: koura, kēwai Mongolian: Cyrillic: хавч (mn) (xavč) Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠪᠴᠢ (qabči) Navajo: tooh chʼoshtsoh bíláshgaantsohí Norman: crabe à co f Norwegian: Bokmål: kreps (no) m Nynorsk: kreps m Occitan: escarabissa (oc), esgaravissa Ojibwe: ashaageshiinh Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: ракъ m (rakŭ) Old East Slavic: ракъ m (rakŭ) Persian: چنگاره‎ (čangâre), خارچنگ‎ (xârčang) Polish: rak (pl) m Portuguese: lagostim (pt) m Quechua: apanqura Romanian: rac (ro) m Russian: рак (ru) m (rak), лангу́ст (ru) (langúst) (saltwater) Rusyn: рак m (rak) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: рак m Roman: rak (sh) m Slovak: rak m Slovene: rak (sl) m Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: rak m Upper Sorbian: rak m Spanish: cangrejo de río m, cangrejo (es) m Swedish: kräfta (sv) c Tajik: харчанг (xarčang), саратон (tg) (saraton) Tatar: кысла (tt) (qısla) Thai: เครย์ฟิช (kree-fít), กุ้ง (th) (gûng) Tok Pisin: kindam Turkish: kerevit (tr) Turkmen: leňňeç Ukrainian: рак (uk) m (rak) Uyghur: قىسقۇچپاقا‎ (qisquchpaqa) Uzbek: qisqichbaqa (uz), saraton (uz), rak (uz) Vietnamese: tôm đồng Yiddish: ראַק‎ (rak)

Verb

crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)

1. to catch crayfish
2. Alternative form of crawfish (to backpedal, desert, or withdraw)

Translations

to catch crayfish

Maori: pouraka

See also

• lobster
• prawn
• shrimp
• yabby

References

1. “Archived copy”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎, accessed 29 July 2013, archived from the original on 2013-06-06

Further reading

• crayfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• crayfish at OneLook Dictionary Search