brit

also
n.

1. The young of herring and similar fish.
2. Minute marine organisms, such as crustaceans of the genus Calanus, that are a major source of food for right whales.

[Perhaps from Cornish brȳthel, mackerel (from Old Cornish breithil , from *breith, speckled) or from Welsh brithyll, trout (from brith, speckled).]

from Cornish
This word originated in England

No, it's not Brit, the nickname for a person from Great Britain. This lowercase brit refers to the tiny sea creatures that are dinner for a whale. Herman Melville describes brit in Chapter 58 of Moby-Dick (1851):

In less poetic language, brit are very small fish or crustaceans in very large schools or pools, collectively making meals for the giant known as the Right Whale (because it was the "right whale" to hunt, unless like Ahab you were looking for a sperm whale).

Brit apparently comes from brythel, the name for mackerel in the Cornish language, formerly spoken in the southwest of England. As a name for the small fry of fish, brit appears in English as early as 1602. Like nearby Welsh, Cornish belongs to the Celtic branch of Indo-European. Other somewhat obscure words that have immigrated from Cornish to English are wrasse (a kind of fish, 1672), porbeagle (a kind of shark, 1758), gossan (decomposed rock, 1776), and vug (a rock cavity, 1818). Cornish itself became extinct in the late eighteenth century, but conservation measures seem to be reviving it along with the whales. There are now said to be 150 fluent speakers of Cornish who have learned it from books and classes.

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the young of a herring or sprat or similar fish
  Synonym: britt

Meaning #2: minute crustaceans forming food for right whales
  Synonym: britt

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - brite

Nederlands (Dutch)
Brits(e), Groot-Brittannië

Français (French)
n. - britannique, anglais

Deutsch (German)
n. - junger Hering, winzige Meerestiere, Brite

Ελληνική (Greek)
n., -
abbr. - (καθομ.) Βρετανός

Italiano (Italian)
inglese

Português (Portuguese)
n. - filhote (m) de arenque
abbr. - britânico

Русский (Russian)
британец

Español (Spanish)
n. - británico

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - britt, engelsman
abbr. - Britannia, Britain

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
小鲱鱼, 海中微生物

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 小鯡魚, 海中微生物

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 영국인

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 英国人, 小さなニシン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) بريطاني (اختصار) مختصر british بريطاني‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בריטי‬

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brit	burberry brit