giller

From Middle English giller. Equivalent gill +‎ -er.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɪlə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɪlɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪlə(ɹ)

giller (plural gillers)

1. (obsolete) A person who gills fish.
   • 1872 January, Hunter Davidson, Report on the Oyster Fisheries: Potomac River Shad and Herring Fisheries, and the Water-Fowl of Maryland, page 35:

     It is one of the improvements of the times ; it enables the poor man, with hardly anything, to go to work on his own resources, and with his boat and net to follow the fish as they travel from place to place in search of food or to spawn. In this pursuit the giller comes in contact with the seinehauler, and certainly encroaches upon his rights.

   • 1897, George Brown Goode, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, volume I, Washington: Government Printing Office, page 572:

     It is then thrown to the giller, who removes the gills and entrails and cuts a gash along the side containing the backbone, in order that the salt may the more readily penetrate the flesh.

   • 1906, W. E. Meehan, “The Shad Work on the Delaware River in 1907 and Its Lessons”, in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society at its Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting, page 105:

     This was done by the giller. We would no: try it if we could get out of it. It was too risky.

From gillen +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɣɪ.lər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gil‧ler
• Rhymes: -ɪlər

giller m (plural gillers, diminutive gillertje n, feminine gilster)

1. (informal) something hilarious; (also) something risible, something ridiculous
2. (uncommon) a screamer, a yeller (one who shouts)

From Old Swedish gilder. Arguably related to gilja (“entice; seduce; propose”).

giller n

1. trap

The word was originally used for animal traps that by virtue of their weight killed or restrained the animal, as opposed to the words fälla or snara used for traps with other mechanisms.

• gillra

• giller in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• giller in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• giller in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• giller in Nordisk familjebok (2nd ed., 1908)