Other forms: gills
A gill is the organ a fish breathes water through. Red gills, the fish's gills, water over the gills.
Water holds far less oxygen than air, so a fish must pass a great deal of it over the gills — which is why many species cannot stop swimming. Bright red gills are the sign of a fresh fish. A gill is also an old liquid measure of a quarter pint.
1noungillThe organ a fish breathes water through.
“Fish take in oxygen through their gills.”
gill is an organ.
Middle English gille comes from a Scandinavian source, related to Old Norse gjolnar, meaning lips or gills.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰel-
Proto-Germanic
*gelunō — jaw
Middle English
gille
English, today
gill
Built from
From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of gmq - origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (“lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (“lip”). Displaced native ċīe.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA