Other forms: shoals
A shoal is a large group of fish moving together. A shoal of herring, swim in a shoal, the shoal turned.
Strictly a shoal is fish gathered together and a school is fish swimming in coordination, though almost nobody keeps the distinction. The other sense of shoal is a shallow patch of water, which is a separate word and a hazard to shipping.
1nounshoalA large group of fish moving together.
“A shoal of tiny silver fish flashed past the divers.”
shoal is a group.
Old English sceald means shallow, which gave the sandbank sense. The fish sense is a different word.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kelh₁- — to dry out
Proto-Germanic
*skalidaz
Old English
sċeald — shallow
Middle English
schold
English, today
shoal
Built from
From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic skalidaz, past participle of skaljaną (“to go dry, dry up, become shallow”), from skalaz (“parched, shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelh₁- (“to dry out”). Cognate with Low German Scholl (“shallow water”), German schal (“stale, flat, vapid”). Compare shallow.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA