[Sca-cooks] Kippers and Toad-in-the-hole

[Darren Gasser]

johnna holloway wrote:
> What source note is American Heritage giving for their entry?
> Were they really copper-colored during spawning or are they
> copper-colored after being prepared by drying and salting?

They don't give a source, unfortunately.  They, Merriam-Webster, and
etymonline.com all connect the use of 'cypera' to 'cyperen' to 'coper,' and
attribute this to the fishes' color in spawning season, but don't give a
source for this connection.

To confuse it further, Walter Skeat says cypera derives from the Old English
'kippian,' ("to spawn").  I'll have to see if he has a source.

Silly Anglo-Saxons, always with the confused etymology.  Sigh.

-Lorenz