Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Mackerel |
MackerelNoun1. Flesh of very important usually small (to 18 in) fatty Atlantic fish. 2. Any of various fishes of the family Scombridae. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "mackerel" was first used: sometime around 1300. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Slang in 1811 | MACKEREL. A bawd: from the French maquerel. Mackerel-backed; long-backed. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A mackerel is any one of a number of different species of fish, mostly in the family Scombridae. They occur in all tropical and temperate seas. Most live offshore in the oceanic environment but a few, like the Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) enter bays and can be caught near bridges and piers. The largest mackerel is the king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) which can grow to 66 inches (168 cm). They are easily identified by having a slim, cylindrical shape (as opposed to the tunas which are deeper bodied) and numerous finlets on the dorsal and ventral sides behind the dorsal and anal fins. The scales are extremely small, if present. They are prized for their meat and fighting ability, and are an important recreational and commercial fishery. In the tropics, the meat can spoil quickly, causing scombroid food poisoning.Mackerel species:
The snake mackerels are a separate family Gempylidae.
- Atka mackerel Pleurogrammus azonus
- Atlantic horse mackerel Trachurus trachurus
- Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus
- Atlantic Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus maculatus
- Australian spotted mackerel Scomberomorus munroi
- Blue jack mackerel Trachurus picturatus
- Blue mackerel Scomber australasicus
- Broadbarred king mackerel Scomberomorus semifasciatus
- Cape horse mackerel Trachurus capensis
- Chub mackerel Scomber japonicus
- Cunene horse mackerel Trachurus trecae
- Double-lined mackerel Grammatorcynus bilineatus
- Greenback horse mackerel Trachurus declivis
- Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta
- Indo-Pacific king mackerel Scomberomorus guttatus
- Island mackerel Rastrelliger faughni
- Japanese jack mackerel Trachurus japonicus
- Japanese Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus niphonius
- King mackerel Scomberomorus cavalla
- Mediterranean horse mackerel Trachurus mediterraneus
- ...
Species called just "mackerel" in various countries:
"Mackerel" is also used as an adjective in the vernacular names of other types of fish, often used to indicate types with a mackerel-like pattern of vertical stripes:
- Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus
- Bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus
- Blue runner Caranx crysos
- Butterfly kingfish Gasterochisma melampus
- Cero Scomberomorus regalis
- Chub mackerel Scomber japonicus
- Double-lined mackerel Grammatorcynus bilineatus
- Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta
- Indo-Pacific king mackerel Scomberomorus guttatus
- Leatherjack Oligoplites saurus
- Narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commerson
- Shark mackerel Grammatorcynus bicarinatus
- West African Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus tritor
- Mackerel icefish - Champsocephalus gunnari
- Mackerel pike - Cololabis saira
- Mackerel scad - Decapterus macarellus
- Mackerel shark - several species
- Sharp-nose mackerel shark - Isurus oxyrinchus
- Mackerel trevalla - Seriolella punctata
- Mackerel tuna - Euthynnus affinis
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mackerel."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| MAC | English | Atlantic mackerel | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Animal | Trout, bass, tuna, muskelunge, sailfish, sardine, mackerel. |
Aphony | Adjective: aphonous, dumb, mute; deafmute, deaf and dumb; mum; tongue-tied; breathless, tongueless, voiceless, speechless, wordless; mute as a fish, mute as a stockfish, mute as a mackerel; silent; (taciturn); muzzled; inarticulate, inaudible. |
Bubble | Cloud, vapor, fog, mist, haze, steam, geyser; scud, messenger, rack, nimbus; cumulus, woolpack, cirrus, stratus; cirrostratus, cumulostratus; cirrocumulus; mackerel sky, mare's tale, dirty sky; curl cloud; frost smoke; thunderhead. |
Libertine | Pimp, procurer; pander, pandar; bawd, conciliatrix, procuress, mackerel, wittol. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Mackerel |
| English words defined with "mackerel": Albicore ♦ cavalla, cero, chub mackerel, Cigar fish, cutlassfish ♦ Decapterus ♦ escolar ♦ frost fish ♦ genus Decapterus ♦ hairtail ♦ Jurel ♦ king mackerel, kingfish ♦ Lepidocybium flavobrunneum ♦ Mackerel bird, Mackerel cock, Mackerel gull, Mackerel plow, mackerel sky, Mackerel-back sky, mako, mako shark ♦ oilfish, Orcynus alalonga ♦ Parvolin, pintado ♦ row, Ruvettus pretiosus ♦ Scomber colias, Scomber japonicus, Scomberomorus cavalla, Scomberomorus maculatus, Scomberomorus regalis, Scomberomorus sierra, sierra, smoked mackerel, Spanish mackerel ♦ Thimbleeye, tinker, tuna, tunny ♦ Wash barrel, Whiffing ♦ Yellowfish. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "mackerel": Bird in the hand ♦ Hook, Hooks ♦ Pasch Eggs, Poisson d'Avril. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "mackerel": Scomber. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | An international spy ring is trying to sneak ridiculous stories into the news In other news, a black and yellow striped mackerel was elected king this morning (The Muppet Show; writing credit: Joseph A. Bailey; Jack Burns) I'm overcome with feelings. I'm experiencing a powerful yearning to to cram my gullet full of mackerel heads (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) I tried to say them once before, and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. And as a matter of fact, I'm not going to leave this body until I do get them said (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; writing credit: Sidney Buchman) | |
Lyrics | Holy mackerel isn't that Schneeschnaw over there (Want Not Want Not; performing artist: The Roches) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Mackerel Fishing (1922) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | King and Spanish mackerel being offloaded from a charter boat. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | About 400 tons of jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi) are caught by a Chilean purse seiner. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) being loaded on a boat. Credit: Fisheries. |  | Mackerel being unloaded, salted, and barreled at the Boston Fish Pier. F&WL 12,351. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Scomberomorus maculatus (Mitchill). Spanish mackerel; Sierra. In: "The Fishes of Porto Rico", by Barton Warren Evermann and Millard Caleb Marsh. Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. XX for 1900. First Part. P. 350, Plate 6. Credit: Fisheries. |  | A large king mackerel coming aboard a sportfishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Local piers provide access to recreational fishing for thousands throughout the United States. Here two fishermen are trying for Pacific mackerel off the Newport Pier on a foggy day. Credit: Fisheries. |  | King and Spanish mackerel being unloaded from a charter boat. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Proud fisherment with catch of King and Spanish mackerel. Credit: Fisheries. |  | An aerial image of Mackerel Cove, Jamestown, RI. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | For example, histamine can reach high levels in cheese, some wines, and in certain kinds of fish, particularly tuna and mackerel. (references) | |
Economic History | Namibia | The main species found in abundance off Namibia are pilchards (sardines), anchovy, hake, and horse mackerel. (references) |
Eq. Guinea | Some 40 Spanish trawlers ply the coast off Malabo, irregularly supplying some red snapper and mackerel to the local market while taking large quantities of tuna, shrimp and lobster to Spain. (references) | |
Travel | Jamaica | Some of the most popular Jamaican dishes are: rice and beans; ackee and salt fish; patties (meat-filled pastries); jerk chicken; curried goat; and mackerel rundown. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Mackerel" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 75.34% of the time. "Mackerel" is used about 146 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 75.34% | 110 | 30,952 |
| Noun (common) | 22.6% | 33 | 60,273 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.05% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 146 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "mackerel": Atka mackerel ♦ Bull mackerel ♦ Chub mackerel ♦ common mackerel ♦ dried mackerel ♦ Frigate mackerel ♦ horse mackerel ♦ jack mackerel ♦ king mackerel ♦ Mackerel bird ♦ Mackerel cock ♦ mackerel guide ♦ Mackerel gull ♦ Mackerel midge ♦ Mackerel plow ♦ mackerel scad ♦ mackerel shad ♦ mackerel shark ♦ mackerel sky ♦ skip mackerel ♦ smoked mackerel ♦ snake mackerel ♦ spanish mackerel ♦ yellow mackerel. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "mackerel": Mackerel-back sky, mackerel-fishing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "mackerel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | skumbri. (various references) | |
Arabic | الإ سقمري سمك بحري. (various references) | |
Bavarian | makrel. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | скумрия. (various references) | |
Chinese | 鲭鱼, 鯖 (mullet). (various references) | |
Cornish | brýthel. (various references) | |
Czech | makrela. (various references) | |
Danish | makrel. (various references) | |
Dutch | makreel (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
Esperanto | skombro. (various references) | |
Faeroese | makrelur. (various references) | |
Farsi | ماهی خال مخالی(ج.ش.), ماهی اسقومری . (various references) | |
Finnish | makrilli (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
French | maquereau (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
German | Makrele (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
Greek | σκουμπρί (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
Hebrew | כופי". (various references) | |
Hungarian | makréla (bonito). (various references) | |
Irish | maircréal. (various references) | |
Italian | sgombro (clear, evacuation), maccarello (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鯖 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | さば. (various references) | |
Manx | breck (brindle, brown trout, chequered, dapple-grey, dotty, mottled, piebald, pied, pocked, speckle; trout-coloured, speckled, spot, spotted, spotty, tartan, trout, variegated). (various references) | |
Norwegian | makrell. (various references) | |
Papiamen | makrel, makré. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ackerelmay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | cavala (horse-mackerel). (various references) | |
Romanian | macrou, scrumbie (bloater). (various references) | |
Russian | макрель. (various references) | |
Scottish | rionnach. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | skuša (saury). (various references) | |
Spanish | escombro (rubbish), caballa (mackerei). (various references) | |
Swedish | makrill (Atlantic mackerel, common mackerel). (various references) | |
Turkish | uskumru. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | скумбрія, макрель. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | trời phủ đầy những đám mây bông trắng nhỏ (mackerel sky). (various references) | |
Welsh | macrell. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Scomber scomber, Scomber scombrus, Scomber scombrus Linnaeus, Scomber scombrus(Linnaeus). (various references) |
| Old Frisian | 1200-1500 | mek. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "mackerel": mackerels. (additional references) | |
| |
"Mackerel" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Akerele, Macierra, mackaii, Mackal, mackarel, Mackavey, Mackee, mackeral, Mackerell, Mackerrell, Mackersey, makaweli, makere, Makerek, Mascarell, Masekela, Mccorkell, Mcgreil, Mckerrel. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "mackerel" (pronounced ma"kerul) |
| 4 | -k er u l | pickerel. |
| 3 | -er u l | admiral, agricultural, architectural, behavioral, bilateral, collateral, Corporal, countercultural, cultural, doctoral, doggerel, electoral, ephemeral, federal, femoral, funeral, Gen, general, guttural, horticultural, humoral, inaugural, structural, supernatural, temporal, intercultural, lateral, liberal, literal, littoral, mayoral, mineral, multicultural, multilateral, natural, neoliberal, nomenclatural, nonagricultural, numeral, pastoral, pectoral, peripheral, postdoctoral, prefectural, procedural, scriptural, sculptural, sectoral, trilateral, unilateral, unnatural, visceral. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-k-l-m-r" | |
-1 letter: reclame. | |
-2 letters: amerce, calker, calmer, cereal, lacker, leaker, mackle, marcel, raceme, rackle, relace, remake. | |
-3 letters: ackee, ameer, camel, carle, clear, cleek, clerk, crake, creak, cream, creek, creel, creme, lacer, laker, lamer, laree, macer, macle, maker, merle, rakee, ramee, realm. | |
-4 letters: acme, acre, akee, alec, alee, alme, cake, calk, calm, came, care, cark, carl, cere. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-k-l-m-r" | |
+1 letter: mackerels. | |
+3 letters: marketplace. | |
+4 letters: marketplaces. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
