sound n OED ~ sb1 2 'swimming bladder of certain fish' (14.. quot 'sowndys of stok-fysch,' 1655'Cod ... sowne'), Fisheries of U S 182 for sense 1; Cent ~ (1891) for sense 2.
1 The air bladder, or hydrostatic organ, of a cod-fish, removed during splitting and salted as a delicacy.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 170 In the morning Condon came up and brought some cod tongues and sounds. [1794] 1968 THOMAS 173 From Ten to Forty pounds is given, with a free Passage out, and some petty gratuitys are sometimes admit'd, such as a Cask of Codd Sounds. 1819 ANSPACH 432 The tongues and sounds are sometimes reserved either for domestic uses or for sale. 1842 BONNYCASTLE ii, 179 Cod, mackerel, herrings, capelin, cod's tongues and sounds, salmon, train-oil, seal-oil, seal-skins, some little peltry, with staves, constitute the chief items of export. 1937 DEVINE 46 Sounds are often stripped off the bones, when fish are split, salted and dried for food. Their texture is tougher than the rest of the fish. 1965 RUSSELL 157 With the cod cleaned, he split the fish, then ran his knife along the backbone, isolating a narrow strip of white gristle. 'This is what we call the sound,' he said. T 347-67 We had fish heads, fish tongues, sounds, flatfish, and then the usual dry salt fish. 1975 The Rounder Sep, p. 12 Sounds, in the natural state, comprise the gas-filled bladder running along the inside of the spinal columns [of the cod-fish]. It controls the fish's [buoyancy]. Bearing a striking resemblance to tripe, sounds are normally sold salted and must be soaked over-night in fresh water before use.
2 Comb sound-bone: backbone of a cod-fish, to which the air bladder is attached.
[1663] 1963 YONGE 57 [They] throw up their fish, which is split, salted, &c. They throw away the heads and sound bones. 1819 ANSPACH 431 The splitter then taking the fish with his left hand, cuts it with the right, beginning at the nape down by the sound-bone to the navel. [1828] 1979 O'FLAHERTY 58 Instead of the hoops, nailed to the table, out of which they sparingly eat their cod's heads and sound bones with more than Spartan temperance... 1937 DEVINE 46 Sound [is] the tegument covering the back bone of a codfish on the inside (the sound bone). 1946 MACKAY (ed) 81 As soon as possible after the fish is caught it must be beheaded, eviscerated and split, that is, have the backbone or 'sound bone' removed. 1960 FUDGE 26 It was wonderful fishing and every morning my men, weary with work, slept in their dories on the stern, and as I dropped them each day, I woke them with fishes heads and sound bones, for we fished twelve straight days. 1973 COOK 42 Pete splits, guts and removes the sound bones of the fish.
