Other forms: roaches
A roach is a cockroach, or a small freshwater fish. Kill the roach, roaches in the kitchen, catch a roach.
The two are entirely unrelated words that happen to have collided. The insect sense is a shortening of cockroach and is chiefly American; the fish is a common European species that anglers know well. In British slang a roach is also the filter in a rolled cigarette.
1nouncockroachA cockroach.
“There's a roach in the kitchen, so we need to call pest control.”
2nounroachA small freshwater fish.
“He spent the afternoon fishing in the canal and caught a few small roach.”
roach is an insect, or a fish.
The fish comes from Old French roche. The insect sense is a shortening of cockroach, itself from Spanish cucaracha.
Proto-Germanic
*rūhaz — rough
Old Saxon
*rūh
Middle Low German
roche, ruche — ray (fish)
Old French
roche
Middle English
roche
English, today
roach
From Middle English roche, from Old French roche, from Middle Low German roche, ruche (“ray (fish)”), from Old Saxon rūh, possibly from Proto-Germanic rūhaz (“rough”). Cognate with Old English ruhha "a ray"; > Middle English rouhe, rohȝe, German Rochen (“ray (fish)”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire