Brill
/brɪl/noun
A flatfish of the North Atlantic and adjacent European waters, valued as food.
Did you know?Brill entered English as a fish name from Dutch, and its older Continental history is tangled with regional naming traditions rather than any spooky literal meaning.
Etymological Timeline
Middle Dutch
NL
bril
“a flatfish name in Dutch regional usage”
Early Modern Dutch
NL
bril
“the fish name carried into seafaring and market vocabulary”
17th Century
English
brill
“borrowed into English as the name of a flatfish”
Modern English
English
brill
“a flatfish of European waters”