tom cod n [phonetics unavailable]. OED ~ d 'a young codfish' (Nfld: 1883); DC 1 (1779-); cp EDD tom sb 10 (5) ~ cod 'a large kind of cod' Do for sense 1.
1 A small immature cod-fish (Gadus morhua); COD2, FISH.
[1766] 1971 BANKS 134 200 Quintals a boat is Calld a saving Voyage, but not under Their Bait are small Fish of all Kinds when they Can gett them Herring Capelin Lance Tom Cod or young Cod. [1779] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 476 At sun-set we hauled the seine by the stage, but took only a few lance and small tomcods. 1792 ibid Gloss i. xvi ~ Young codfish. 1826 Edin New Phil J i, 33 The young cod, tom-cod, or podley, swarms in summer in all the harbours and shallow-waters. 1858 [LOWELL] i, 203 The King (ef 'twas the king 'isself that doned it) might as well take a squid or a tom-cod for a magistrate, as some 'e'd amade. 1888 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 6 On our way we picked up a dead fish I never saw before. Leslie says it is a Ling. It is much like a Tomcod, but has a somewhat flattened head, and a very narrow tapering tail. 1895 PROWSE 62 The Scot, however, is a long way behind the genuine native, who has been practising it from a small boy; copying, jigging tomcods, and going in the woods trouting, being the popular amusements of the native boy. 1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 249 Clam bank ... and Tom Cod rock [lie] south-south-westward ... of West Flat island. [1952] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 126 "The Fisherman's Alphabet": 'T' stands for tom-cod, the tide they do stem. T 90-64 And there was other sizes that we had for a few years, barrels for torn cods and other things. P 148-66 He has a gut like a harbour tomcod. P 130-67 ~ A small cod; this includes cod up to twenty inches. There is no set distinction. What one person may call a small fish another may call a big tom-cod. C 70-12 ~ A fish which is too small to be called a cod fish or sold as one, but too big to be called a rounder. [It] is from 12-15 inches in length. It can be split, which means the sound bone can be taken out, this is not possible in the rounder. 1971 RLS 3, p. 2 A young, immature cod is called a tomcod and as such must be distinguished from the true Atlantic tomcod Microgadus tomcod. 1979 NEMEC 238 ~ [a cod] under 12 inches.
2 A grade or 'cull' of dried and salted cod-fish; dried cod of small size; cp LEGGY, ROUNDER.
1953 Nfld Fish Develop Report 42 Newfoundand's most important market in the Caribbean is Puerto Rico. It was developed originally as an outlet for semidried Labrador fish ... but much the larger quantity exported there now consists of shore-cure fish of 'thirds' grade and 'tomcods.' 1955 Nfld Fisheries Board No 23 ~s. Fish 8 to 12 inches in length both inclusive and may be either Merchantable or Madeira quality, or a mixture of both. T 36-64 'Extra large' [was] from 21 to 24 [inches long], 'large' from 18 to 21, 'small' from 14 to 18, 'tom-cod' from 12 to 14. T 410-67 There was small madeira, large madeira; small thirds an' large thirds; small West Indee; tomcods ... Italian—too many grades for me! 1979 TIZZARD 295 There it would be thrown upon the wharf to be culled into different grades: large merchantable, small merchantable, large Madeira, small Madeira, torn cod and cullage.
