The terms "sardine" and "pilchard" are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region.
"Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring saudara Clupeidae.[2] The termin "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a folk etymology says it comes from the Italian island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once supposedly abundant.[3][4][5]
The terms "sardine" and "pilchard" are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards.[6] One criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 15 cm (6 in) are sardines, and larger fish are pilchards.[7]
The FAO/WHO Codex standar for canned sardines cites 21 species that may be classed as sardines.[8] FishBase, a comprehensive database of information about fish, calls at least six species "pilchard", over a dozen just "sardine", and many more with the two basic names qualified by various adjectives.
'Sardine' first appeared in English in the 15th century, a loanword from French sardine, derived from Latin sardina, from Ancient Greek σαρδίνη (sardínē) or σαρδῖνος (sardĩnos),[9] said to be from the Greek "Sardō" (Σαρδώ), indicating the island of Sardinia. Athenaios quotes a fragmentary passage from Aristotle mentioning the fish σαρδῖνος : sardĩnos, referring to the sardine or pilchard.[10] However, Sardinia is about 1,300 km (810 mi) distant from Athens; Ernest Klein in his Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1971) writes, "It is hardly probable that the Greeks would have obtained fish from so far as Sardinia at a time relatively so early as that of Aristotle."[11]
The flesh of some sardines or pilchards is a reddish-brown color similar to some varieties of red sardonyx or sardine stone; this word derives from σαρδῖον (sardĩon) with a root meaning 'red' and (according to Pliny) possibly cognate with Sardis, the capital of ancient Lydia (now western Turkey) where it was obtained. However, the name may refer to the reddish-pink color of the gemstone sard (or carnelian) known to the ancients.
