Talk:conger eel

RFV discussion: August–September 2019

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

conger eel

Rfv-sense: A chain of booksellers. DTLHS (talk) 20:06, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

I think this is based on a misunderstanding. Chambers 1908 has:

Conger, kong′gėr, n. a marine bony fish in the eel family, 3 to 6 feet long—also Con′ger-eel : a company of co-operating booksellers. [L.,—Gr. gongros.]

The misunderstanding is caused by the unusual use in Chambers of the colon, which separates definitions. The entry should be interpreted as:

Conger, kong′gėr, n. [L.,—Gr. gongros.]

1. a marine bony fish in the eel family, 3 to 6 feet long—also Con′ger-eel;
2. a company of co-operating booksellers.

Indeed, in Nathan Bailey’s Dictionarium Britannicum (1730) we find:

Conger / Congre [of congrus, L.] A ſociety of bookſellers to the number of 10 or more, who unite into a ſort of company, or contribute a joint ſtock for the printing of books ; ſo called, becauſe as a large conger eel is ſaid to devour the ſmall fry, ſo this united body over-powers young and ſingle traders, who have neither ſo much money to ſupport the charge, nor ſo-united an intereſt to diſpoſe of books printed ; tho’ (according to tradition) the foregoing was the original of the name conger, yet to be a little more complaiſant, you may derive it of congruere, L. i. e. to agree together ; or ſi licet in parvis magnis exemplis uti, of congressus a congreſs. Utrum horum mavis accipe. [1]

And Bailey’s An Universal Etymological Dictionary of 1764 has, more concisely:

CON'GRE / CON'GER [of congruere, L. to agree together] a Society of Bookſellers who have a joint Stock in Trade, or agree to print Books in Copartnerſhip. [2]

 --Lambiam

Oops, my error. Perhaps we should have this sense at congre and conger, however. Equinox ◑ 13:17, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Speedied. Kiwima (talk) 21:58, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

 Done Created the sense at conger. (I couldn't find much evidence of congre.) Equinox ◑ 01:42, 15 September 2019 (UTC)