Meaning

noun young eel; may be sauteed or batter-fried

noun young eel

originVariant of eelfare, originally "brood of young eels", from Middle English *elfare, *elvare, from el (“eel”) + fare (“group of journeyers”). Equivalent to eel + fare. Liberman instead connects the second element of this word to a putative Old English suffix *-for(e), but there is no need to posit such a suffix when the traditional etymology suffices. Furthermore, such a suffix is not securely…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0