Other forms: pikes
A pike is a long-jawed freshwater fish that hunts other fish from cover. A twenty-pound pike, pike fishing, the pike took it in one go.
It is the top predator of many rivers and lakes, olive-green, with a mouth full of backward-pointing teeth. Anglers use wire traces because a pike bites through nylon. The word also names the long spear that infantry carried for centuries — pikemen, pike and shot — which is where the fish's name comes from. In diving and gymnastics, a pike position is a body bent sharply at the hips with straight legs.
1nounpikeA long-jawed freshwater fish that hunts other fish.
“A pike will take a duckling off the surface.”
2nounspearA long spear once carried by foot soldiers.
“The front rank held pikes eighteen feet long.”
pike is a fish, or a spear.
The fish is named after the weapon, for the shape of its long pointed head — from Old French pic, a sharp point, the same root as pick and picket. It is one of the few animals in English named after a piece of military equipment.
Proto-Germanic
*pīkaz
Proto-West Germanic
*pīk
Old French
pic — sharp point, spike
Middle French
pique — long thrusting weapon
Old English
pīc — pointed object, pick axe
Middle English
pyke
English, today
pike
Built from
From Middle English pyke, pyk, pik, pike (“pike; sharp point, iron tip of a staff or spear, pointed toe of an item of footwear; sharp tool; mountain, peak”), from Old English pīc (“pointed object, pick axe”), and Middle French pique (“long thrusting weapon”), from Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic pīk, from Proto-Germanic pīkaz, pīkō (“sharp point, pike, peak”), related to pick with a narrower meaning. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch pecke, peke, picke (modern Dutch piek), German Pike, Norwegian pik, Danish pig, and possibly Old Irish pīk. It is a a doublet of pique. The diving or gymnastics position is probably from tapered appearance of the body when the position is executed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Insects & Sea Life, Swimming & Diving