Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “goldfish” come from?

I appreciate the detailed instructions, but I notice the etymology chain provided appears corrupted or nonsensical—it jumps between unrelated words (gold, fiche, ficher, fiskōną, pisḱ-, h₂ep-, pandemic) and doesn't trace a coherent path to "goldfish." To write an accurate one-sentence etymology, I would need a valid chain showing how "goldfish" actually derives through languages in sequence. Could you provide the correct etymological chain? For reference, the actual etymology of "goldfish" would trace through English compound formation (gold + fish) rather than this chain, so I want to ensure I'm working with the right information before composing the summary sentence.

goldfish (English): A type of small fish, "Carassius auratus",...

Definitions

  1. A type of small fish, "Carassius auratus",...

Ancestry of “goldfish”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishFish—
2Old Englishfiscianto fish
3Proto-West Germanicfiskōnto fish, to catch fish
4Proto-Germanicfiskōnąto fish, to catch fish
5Proto-Germanic-ōnąCreates denominative verbs from nouns; Creates...
6Proto-Indo-European-eh₂yétiCreates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive...
7Proto-Indo-European-yétiCreates intransitive, often deponent,...
8Proto-Indo-Europeanyé-—
9Chichewaiyehe, she

Words derived from “goldfish”

  • goldfishy
  • goldfishlike
Every word from Chichewa iye →