Word of The Day

ANADROMOUS

adj., migrating up rivers from the sea to breed in fresh water. Used of fish.

Found in my American Heritage Dictionary while I was trying to find the proper spelling of "analogous," which has one more O in it than I thought it did. (And two more than the average person uses in pronouncing it. Of course, it may not be a word the average person pronounces very often.)

I wonder how many English words are specific to fish. They have their own special grammar rule: When you refer to multiple fish of the same species, they are called "fish." When you refer to mutliple fishes of different species, they are called "fishes." Thus it would be appropriate to say, "That's a nice tank of fishes you got there." (Although the use of the word "got" is of debatable appropriateness.)