Former lead singer for Marillion, now a solo musician, writer, and actor. A very tall Scotsman, the kind of guy you wouldn't want to piss off. Luckily, he's quite friendly and amusing.

Fish was born Derek William Dick in Edinburgh on April 2th, 1958 and raised in Dalkeith, a small town in Scotland. Went to college and had numerous jobs in forestry until the early 1980s when he joined bands like Blewitt and Stone Dome Band. Fate arrived in 1981 when he joined Marillion, leading to huge stardom and near self-destruction, and leaving the band in 1988.

Fish's solo career thus begins in 1989 with the release of Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors, which, like the Marillion album released at nearly the same time, was full of ideas from the last Marillion writing sessions, with some new feelings and the ever-present poetry that Fish is always able to pull off. then in 1991 we get Internal Exile, an album full of Scottish influences and a scathing indictment of the music industry in the song "Speaking In Tongues." In 1993 an album of cover tunes called Songs from the Mirror is released, the tracks being ones influential to Fish during his career. 1994 brought us Suits, which never really did it for me, unlike 1997's Sunsets on Empire, which had production and writing contributions from Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, and was probably Fish's strongest statement to date, and supported his first solo US tour.

1999's Raingods With Zippos was another good album full of depth and detail--as well as the 30 minute epic "Plague Of Ghosts."

2001 sees the release of Fellini Days, which, like his former band, he pre-sold to raise money for its production. Fellini Days features Fish singing in a lower register to accomodate a voice ravaged by alcohol, drugs, abuse, infections, and cigarettes over the years, but somehow sounding better than ever, with the work of guitarist John Wesley, who was the opening act and guitar tech for Marillion in the 90s.

Also since the late '90s, Fish has had a bit of an acting career, notably appearing in the BBC detective show Taggart as an abusive husband.

firmy = F = FISH queue

fish n.

[Adelaide University, Australia] 1. Another metasyntactic variable. See foo. Derived originally from the Monty Python skit in the middle of "The Meaning of Life" entitled "Find the Fish". 2. A pun for `microfiche'. A microfiche file cabinet may be referred to as a `fish tank'.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

KANJI: GYO uo (fish)

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Character Etymology:

From a pictograph of a fish, vertically oriented.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: GYO
kun-yomi: uo sakana -zakana

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: i

English Definitions:

  1. GYO, uo, sakana: fish.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 6845
Henshall: 98

Unicode Encoded Version:

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

魚市場 (uoichiba): fish market.
(gyoniku): fish meat.
魚釣 (uotsuri): fishing.
(gyorai): torpedo.

 

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The study of fish is ichthyology, and this is what it tells us: Fish are aquatic vertebrate animals with fins instead of limbs and gills instead of lungs. They move by weaving their bodies to propel themselves through the water, guiding themselves with their fins. They breathe by taking water in through their mouths and passing it over their gills; oxygen diffuses into the gills, and carbon dioxide diffuses out. Most, but not all, fish have scales on their skin; this, coupled with slimy glandular secretions from the skin, makes them waterproof. They are often camoflauged by the markings on their skin. Most fish are cold-blooded. Most fish reproduce by spawning, that is, laying an enormous number of shelled eggs which are fertilized externally; however most sharks give birth to live young.

Fish were the earliest vertebrates on the earth and are presumed to have evolved from primitive aquatic chordates; terrestrial vertebrates in turn evolved from fishes that took to land. There are three living classes of fish: the jawless Agnatha (mostly extinct, with only lampreys and hagfishes existent today), the cartiligenous Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras), and the bony Osteichthyes (all the others). (Note that invertebrates like shellfish are not true fishes, and neither are air-breathing whales.) But within these three broad classes are over 20,000 living species of fish which run the gamut of fishy possibility. They can be tiny or huge (the whale shark can be 45 ft/14 m long); they live in marine, fresh, and brackish waters all over the world at depths of a few centimetres to the bottom of the ocean. Whatever their preferred habitat, each species is adapted to its environment's temperature, water pressure, and light level. Many fishes stay in organized groups called schools, but some are solitary. They may be carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous. As you can see, they are a varied lot.

Fish have the misfortune of being a popular food source for other animals, particularly humans, and so the act of catching these creatures - for food or display - is known as fishing. Fishing is an ancient livelihood that was mentioned in the Odyssey and the Bible. The leading species of fish in commercial fisheries today include anchovies, cod, haddock, whiting, herring, mackerel, as well as shellfish like lobsters, crabs, shrimps, oysters, mussels, octopus, and squid. Modern fishing might utilize lines and hooks or bait - think solitary fly fisherman standing in the river - or huge boats and modern technology - mighty trawlers dragging huge nets that encircle whole schools of fish, which are then brought aboard and frozen on the spot. But whatever the method employed, modern fisheries have in many areas of the world devastated fish stocks. Here in Canada the Atlantic cod and lobster fishery has been shut down because of the severe depletion of said animals; while this already impoverished region will have a hard time absorbing the economic impact of this closure, the fish themselves may have the harder time recovering. Fish farms probably have a better chance to succeed in the long term than culling of natural stocks, for the farms breed fish specifically for commercial purposes.

With this caution in mind, I must admit that fish are an excellent source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids, and one of the few natural sources of vitamin D outside of sunlight. Therefore, I'm going to revisit our wee friends now in culinary terms. First, let's distinguish salt water from fresh water fish. Be aware that salt water fish like cod, flounder, and tuna often have big, thick bones, while fresh water fish like catfish, perch, and trout have many tiny bones. (Why? Because salt water provides more buoyancy, so the skeletal structure of fish in the sea can be heavier.) Fish can be lean or fatty; the former concentrates its fat in the liver and has mild and pale flesh, while the latter has oil throughout the body and a darker, heavier, more flavourful flesh. Leaner fish include sea bass, cod, trout, flounder, haddock, hake, halibut, and snapper; moderately fatty fish include barracuda, bonito, and whiting; fattier fish include eel, herring, mackerel, sturgeon, and yellowtail. As for the rest, I can do no better than point you to sneff's wonderful How to select, prepare and cook fish.

Fish (?), n. [F. fiche peg, mark, fr. fisher to fix.]

A counter, used in various games.

 

© Webster 1913.


Fish, n.; pl. Fishes (#), or collectively, Fish. [OE. fisch, fisc, fis, AS. fisc; akin to D. visch, OS. & OHG. fisk, G. fisch, Icel. fiskr, Sw. & Dan. fisk, Goth. fisks, L. piscis, Ir. iasg. Cf. Piscatorial. In some cases, such as fish joint, fish plate, this word has prob. been confused with fish, fr. F. fichea peg.]

1.

A name loosely applied in popular usage to many animals of diverse characteristics, living in the water.

2. Zool.

An oviparous, vertebrate animal usually having fins and a covering scales or plates. It breathes by means of gills, and lives almost entirely in the water. See Pisces.

The true fishes include the Teleostei (bony fishes), Ganoidei, Dipnoi, and Elasmobranchii or Selachians (sharks and skates). Formerly the leptocardia and Marsipobranciata were also included, but these are now generally regarded as two distinct classes, below the fishes.

3. pl.

The twelfth sign of the zodiac; Pisces.

4.

The flesh of fish, used as food.

5. Naut. (a)

A purchase used to fish the anchor.

(b)

A piece of timber, somewhat in the form of a fish, used to strengthen a mast or yard.

Fish is used adjectively or as part of a compound word; as, fish line, fish pole, fish spear, fish-bellied.

Age of Fishes. See under Age, n., 8. -- Fish ball, fish (usually salted codfish) shared fine, mixed with mashed potato, and made into the form of a small, round cake. [U.S.] -- Fish bar. Same as Fish plate (below). -- Fish beam Mech., a beam one of whose sides (commonly the under one) swells out like the belly of a fish. Francis. -- Fish crow Zool., a species of crow (Corvus ossifragus), found on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It feeds largely on fish. -- Fish culture, the artifical breeding and rearing of fish; pisciculture. -- Fish davit. See Davit. -- Fish day, a day on which fish is eaten; a fast day. -- Fish duck Zool., any species of merganser. -- Fish fall, the tackle depending from the fish davit, used in hauling up the anchor to the gunwale of a ship. -- Fish garth, a dam or weir in a river for keeping fish or taking them easily. -- Fish glue. See Isinglass. -- Fish joint, a joint formed by a plate or pair of plates fastened upon two meeting beams, plates, etc., at their junction; -- used largely in connecting the rails of railroads. -- Fish kettle, a long kettle for boiling fish whole. -- Fish ladder, a dam with a series of steps which fish can leap in order to ascend falls in a river. -- Fish line, or Fishing line, a line made of twisted hair, silk, etc., used in angling. -- Fish louse Zool., any crustacean parasitic on fishes, esp. the parasitic Copepoda, belonging to Caligus, Argulus, and other related genera. See Branchiura. -- Fish maw Zool., the stomach of a fish; also, the air bladder, or sound. -- Fish meal, fish desiccated and ground fine, for use in soups, etc. -- Fish oil, oil obtained from the bodies of fish and marine animals, as whales, seals, sharks, from cods' livers, etc. -- Fish owl Zool., a fish-eating owl of the Old World genera Scotopelia and Ketupa, esp. a large East Indian species (K. Ceylonensis). -- Fish plate, one of the plates of a fish joint. -- Fish pot, a wicker basket, sunk, with a float attached, for catching crabs, lobsters, etc. -- Fish pound, a net attached to stakes, for entrapping and catching fish; a weir. [Local, U.S.] Bartlett. -- Fish slice, a broad knife for dividing fish at table; a fish trowel. -- Fish slide, an inclined box set in a stream at a small fall, or ripple, to catch fish descending the current. Knight. -- Fish sound, the air bladder of certain fishes, esp. those that are dried and used as food, or in the arts, as for the preparation of isinglass. -- Fish story, a story which taxes credulity; an extravagant or incredible narration. [Colloq. U.S.] Bartlett. -- Fish strainer. (a) A metal colander, with handles, for taking fish from a boiler. (b) A perforated earthenware slab at the bottom of a dish, to drain the water from a boiled fish. -- Fish trowel, a fish slice. -- Fish weir or wear, a weir set in a stream, for catching fish. -- Neither fish nor flesh (Fig.), neither one thing nor the other.

 

© Webster 1913.


Fish (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fished (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fishing.]

1.

To attempt to catch fish; to be employed in taking fish, by any means, as by angling or drawing a net.

2.

To seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth; as, to fish for compliments.

Any other fishing question. Sir W. Scott.

 

© Webster 1913.


Fish, v. t. [OE. fischen, fisken, fissen, AS. fiscian; akin to G. fischen, OHG. fiscn, Goth. fiskn. See Fish the animal.]

1.

To catch; to draw out or up; as, to fish up an anchor.

2.

To search by raking or sweeping.

Swift.

3.

To try with a fishing rod; to catch fish in; as, to fish a stream.

Thackeray.

4.

To strengthen (a beam, mast, etc.), or unite end to end (two timbers, railroad rails, etc.) by bolting a plank, timber, or plate to the beam, mast, or timbers, lengthwise on one or both sides. See Fish joint, under Fish, n.

To fish the anchor. Naut. See under Anchor.

 

© Webster 1913.

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