leister

See also: Leister

English

WOTD – 20 December 2018

Etymology

A leister (without its shaft) from Brazil[n 1]
A man using a leister to spear fish

From earlier leyster, lister, perhaps via Middle English *lēster, *līster, from Old Norse ljóstr (leister), from ljósta (to smite, strike; to hit, strike (with an arrow or spear)),[1] from Proto-Germanic *leustaną (to hit, strike), from Proto-Indo-European *lew-s- (to loosen (by knocking)); the word is cognate with Danish lyster (fish spear, gig, leister), Icelandic ljósta (to hit, strike), Norwegian Bokmål lyster (dialectal Norwegian lioster), Swedish ljuster.[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

leister (plural leisters)

  1. (fishing) A spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon. [from 16th c.]
    Synonym: waster (Scotland, obsolete)
    • 1792, William Wright, “Number XII. Parish of Newabbey. (Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.)”, in John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland. [], volume II, Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William Creech; [et al.], OCLC 833254249, footnote, pages 132–133:
      The methods of catching the ſalmon in this pariſh are ſimilar to thoſe deſcribed in the ſtatiſtical account of Dornock, p. 15. excepting that there is no raiſe-net fiſhing, and that the leiſter is only about 10 or 12 feet long, conſequently better calculated for throwing to any diſtance.
    • 1843, William Scrope, chapter IX, in Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed; [], London: John Murray, [], OCLC 263174718, pages 199–200:
      Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed.
    • 1850, “Agricola” [pseudonym], “‘Burning the Water’—A Tweedside Sketch”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume 116, London: Published at the office, 34, Norfolk Street, Strand, OCLC 504036641, page 57:
      Andy, who had been a moment behind getting his leister out of the fish he had killed, came up, and both he and Jock made several random strokes, when Jock, in his eagerness, slipped his foot, and fell headforemost into the water, the leister flying from his hand just as I caught sight of the fish they were after, lying close in to the bank; []
    • 1865, “the Ettrick Shepherd” [pseudonym; James Hogg]; Thomas Thomson, “The Siege of Roxburgh”, in The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd. [], volume I, new edition, London; Glasgow; Edinburgh: Blackie & Son, [], OCLC 12729013, chapter VII, page 632, column 1:
      Old Sandy fished down the river, but he could kill no more salmon that night, [] He missed one; wounded another on the tail; and struck a third on the rigback, where no leister can pierce a fish, till he made him spring above water.
    • 1878 April 26, “a special correspondent” [pseudonym], “River Poaching on the Borders.—No. IV.”, in The Fishing Gazette, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, OCLC 702591094, page 194, column 1:
      The leister is a spear composed of four or more barbed prongs, something like the manure fork or graip of the agriculturist, and firmly fixed to a light straight pole about twelve or fourteen feet in length. [] The leisterer looks into the river to find a fish, he spears it if he can and must keep it from wriggling off his leister after it is pierced.
    • 1952, University of California Publications in Geography, volume 9, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, ISSN 0068-6441, OCLC 883501946, page 108:
      Although leisters and harpoons cannot be called the most important implement in the fishing economy of the North American Indians, they are probably of more value as evidence of culture-historical movements than most of the other fishing artifacts, and for two reasons.
    • 2004, Jørgen Skaarup, “Artefacts”, in Jørgen Skaarup; Ole Grøn; Anne Bloch Jøorgensen and David Earle Robinson, transl., Møllegabet II: A Submerged Mesolithic Settlement in Southern Denmark (BAR International Series; 1328), Oxford: Archaeopress, →ISBN, archived from the original on 20 December 2018, section V.a.4.2 (Leister Prongs), page 88, column 2:
      The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole.

Alternative forms

Hypernyms

Derived terms

  • clodding leister

Translations

See also

Verb

leister (third-person singular simple present leisters, present participle leistering, simple past and past participle leistered)

  1. (transitive) To catch or spear (fish) with a leister.
    • 1848, Andrew Young, The Natural History & Habits of the Salmon, [], Wick, Caithness: Published by Peter Reid. [...], OCLC 745634725, page 17:
      We once knew a notorious salmon poacher, who, on one of his excursions, saw a pair of salmon spawning in a stream. He leistered the male from the side of the female, and as soon as she missed her partner, she retired from the spawning-bed into the pool below the ford, and very soon returned with another male, which the poacher also leistered.
    • 1865, [Walter Frederick Campbell], “A Norman Breakfast and a Stroll”, in John Francis Campbell, editor, Life in Normandy: Sketches of French Fishing, Farming, Cooking, Natural History and Politics Drawn from Nature, volume II, 3rd edition, Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, OCLC 633756547, pages 50–51:
      You are quite correct, sir, [] in what you say about the quantity of oil in the heads of these fish [gurnets or gurnards]. [] [T]he heads [of the fish are] placed with their mouths upward, and a small quantity of tow placed in each mouth. When they [the poachers] reach the stream where they are to leister the salmon, the tow is lighted, the fire immediately communicates with the lips of the fish, and a beautiful clear light is emitted, which continues to burn for a considerable time. Sometimes also a single head, thus prepared and dried, is fixed at the end of a stick, and is used as a torch, when a poacher goes leistering single-handed.
    • 1890, “Ellangowen” [pseudonym; James Glass Bertram], “Trout and Sport in the Borders”, in Out-door Sports in Scotland: Deer Stalking, Grouse Shooting, Salmon Fishing, Golfing, Curling, &c. [], 2nd edition, London; Calcutta: W[illiam] H[oughton] Allen & Co., [], OCLC 1013257363, pages 310–311:
      No sport (hare-hunting excepted) gave more delight to the master of Abbotsford than the leistering of a salmon by the light of a pine-wood torch in the early part of a long winter's night, when a feast on some occasions would be improvised, a fire would be kindled, and a kettle would be got ready; []

Derived terms

Translations

Notes

References

Further reading

Anagrams

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