spitchcock.
A method of cooking an eel (or occasionally some other fish) by splitting it along the back, cutting it into pieces, and broiling or frying it.
Meaning & usage
A method of cooking an eel (or occasionally some other fish) by splitting it along the back, cutting it into pieces, and broiling or frying it.
An eel (or other fish) prepared in this way.
Where this word comes from
The noun is derived from Middle English spiche-coke (“eel split lengthwise and broiled”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From Middle English *speche, *spiche (“to split”) + cock, coken (“to allow (something) to cook; to cook”) (from cok (“person who cooks food, cook”), from Old English cōc (“a cook”)). * From spik (“animal fat, especially lard”) (from Old English spiċ (“bacon; lard”)), spik, spike (“large nail; pointed stud”) (possibly from Old Norse spík, spíkr (“nail”)), or spit, spite (“rod for cooking meat, spit; pointed object”) (from Old English spitu, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“sharp point; stick”)) + cok (“male of the common domestic fowl, cock, rooster”) (from Old English coc, cocc). The verb is probably derived from the noun.
To cook (an eel, or occasionally some other fish) by splitting it along the back, cutting it into pieces, and broiling or frying it.
Where this word comes from
The noun is derived from Middle English spiche-coke (“eel split lengthwise and broiled”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From Middle English *speche, *spiche (“to split”) + cock, coken (“to allow (something) to cook; to cook”) (from cok (“person who cooks food, cook”), from Old English cōc (“a cook”)). * From spik (“animal fat, especially lard”) (from Old English spiċ (“bacon; lard”)), spik, spike (“large nail; pointed stud”) (possibly from Old Norse spík, spíkr (“nail”)), or spit, spite (“rod for cooking meat, spit; pointed object”) (from Old English spitu, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“sharp point; stick”)) + cok (“male of the common domestic fowl, cock, rooster”) (from Old English coc, cocc). The verb is probably derived from the noun.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.