whiting

Pluralwhitings, whiting

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A marine fish of the North Atlantic (Merlangius merlangus), in the cod family and resembling cod; known in the US as English whiting.

   The chef poached a whole whiting in white wine and herbs.

   Trawlers off Norway hauled in nets full of whiting.

   Note

   The fish the name first belonged to is a different word from the chalk. It comes from Middle English whityng, probably reshaped from Old English hwītling to look like white plus a diminutive ending. Dutch wijting names the same fish, while Old Norse hvítingr meant a kind of whale. American speakers call it English whiting, because plain whiting there means the North American hakes.

2. 2
   nounUScountable or uncountable

   In American usage, any of several marine fish of North American coastal waters, especially the silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) and other hakes.

   Along the New England coast, fishermen sell whiting caught close to shore.

   Restaurants across the Mid-Atlantic often list whiting as an affordable white-fleshed fish.

   Similarhake

   Note

   From here on the name travels by resemblance: fish that look like the original North Atlantic whiting take its name, whatever their family. In the United States it goes above all to hakes, especially the silver hake, Merluccius bilinearis. A menu's whiting and a field guide's hake can be the same fish, so the scientific or full common name is the safer choice when the species matters.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A fine white chalk, ground to a powder and used in paints, putty, whitewash, and similar preparations.

   The decorator stirred whiting into the whitewash before coating the barn walls.

   Traditional glaziers bind whiting with linseed oil to make putty.

   Similarwhitening

   Note

   A pigment's name built plainly from white plus -ing, with whitening as its synonym. Chemically it is calcium carbonate ground to a fine powder: Rowley and Farrell's Principles of Chemistry Applied to the Household (1918) finds the same powder in tooth pastes. It is usually a mass noun, as in a tin of whiting. The fish is a separate word with its own history, behind the North Atlantic fish.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of white.

   Note

   Here the verb white does the work. It means to make something white, and it takes an object: they were whiting the walls. As a gerund it heads a noun phrase (whiting the ceiling took all day). Context separates it from the chalk, which shares its spelling and its origin in white. A painter may well be whiting a fence with whiting.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A fish of the drum family (Menticirrhus americanus) found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, also called the southern kingfish.

   Anglers along the Gulf Coast prize whiting for its sweet, firm meat.

   The southern whiting feeds on small crustaceans in the surf zone.

   Similarkingfish

   Note

   A drum, not a cod: Menticirrhus americanus belongs to Sciaenidae and has collected names along the US coast. Carolina whiting, king whiting, southern kingcroaker and southern kingfish all mean this one fish. With so many local labels, the scientific name is the only one that pins it down.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A marine fish of the Northern Hemisphere, Micromesistius poutassou, belonging to the cod family and also called blue whiting.

   Fisheries in the northeast Atlantic land huge quantities of blue whiting, and much of the whiting goes to fishmeal.

   Frozen blue whiting costs very little, and the small whiting fries up crisp in a hot pan.

   Note

   Here the name carries a color. Blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou, is a cod-family fish in a different genus from the common whiting, so the shared name reflects likeness rather than close kinship. Whiting alone can refer to it. Keep the adjective when precision counts, though, because its southern relative is a separate species of the same genus.

7. 7
   nounCanadacountable or uncountable

   A North Pacific marine fish of the cod family (Gadus chalcogrammus, syn. Theragra chalcogramma), more widely known as Alaska pollock.

   Surimi and imitation crab are often produced from whiting harvested in the Bering Sea.

   The North Pacific whiting fishery is among the largest in the world.

   Similarpollock

   Note

   Canadian usage gives the name to yet another cod relative, the Alaska pollock. It appears under two scientific names, Gadus chalcogrammus and Theragra chalcogramma, so both turn up in fisheries writing. A Canadian whiting and an American one are different fish. When the species matters, pollock is the clearer word.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Any of the smelt-whitings (family Sillaginidae), slender fish inhabiting Indo-Pacific coasts, several species of which are commercially important food fish.

   Along Australian beaches, anglers cast for whiting over the sandy shallows where the fish feed.

   Markets across Southeast Asia sell whiting netted from coastal shallows.

   Note

   These fish fall outside the cod family altogether. The smelt-whitings of Indo-Pacific coasts belong to Sillaginidae, and they share the name only through resemblance. The hyphenated smelt-whiting is the precise term for the group. Many species are sold as whitefish, which is a market label for mild white-fleshed fish rather than a family name.

9. 9
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A slender marine fish (Micromesistius australis) of the cod family, native to the Southern Hemisphere and known as the southern blue whiting.

   Fleets fishing off southern Chile and New Zealand harvest whiting in deep, cold water.

   The southern blue whiting spawns near the Falkland Islands, and the whiting then move to feeding grounds farther south.

   Note

   William J. Broad, writing in 1995 in "Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table," lists southern blue whiting beside orange roughy, hoki, blue ling and rattails as deep-water fish newly harvested for seafood. In such company the full name is the one used, since whiting alone could point to any of several fish.

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