DCHP-3

tansy ((2))

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
blenny, tissy, butterfish

n. — Newfoundland, Fauna

a rock gunnel, Pholis gunnellus; a small, eel-like saltwater fish.

Type: 3. Semantic Change — In Devon, England, tansy has been used as a name for the Blennius pholis, a fish native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean (EDD, s.v. "tansy" sb.2). Blennius pholis, the common blenny (OED-3, s.v. "blenny"), and Pholis gunnellus, the rock gunnel, have many similar physical traits, particularly the elongated body resembling an eel. When British settlers, specifically from the West Country area which includes Devon, brought the term to Newfoundland, it was likely adopted for the rock gunnel because of these similarities. Adding to the confusion, the rock gunnel may also be referred to as a "blenny" (see the 2007 quotation).
See also DNE, s.v. "tansy" (2).

Quotations

1937
TANSY. A tiny, eel-like fish living in small salt water pools on the beaches, called "tansy ponds."
1949
As a diversion from some of the best fishing in the world, he could perch on the stagehead resting his elbows on his knees and his jaw in his hands and peer into the shallow water at the sea-tansies, crabs, and bannystickles.
1951
Besides the trout, we caught salmon peels, billfish, tomcods, flatfishi, tansies, and whatever else took hold of the hook.
1966
LEIM & SCOTT 304 Rock gunnel... Other common names: gunnel, butterfish, tansy, tissy, rock eel.
1975
GUY 15 A tansie is a small thing like an eel brown on the back and yellowish sort of on the gut and they are under rocks, too.
2007
Another Fogo novelty was tansy eels. Slender as pencils, they lived under rockweed and sometimes twined around my ankles, but never bit. Some called them blennies.

References

  • OED-3
  • EDD
  • DNE