Etymology of Some Common Names for New Zealand Freshwater Fishes 1

R. M. McDoWALL2

ABSTRACT: Three vernacular names for New Zealand freshwater fishes have phonetic similarities that might suggest related etymologies: "k6kopu" (family Galaxiidae), "cockabully" (family Tripterygiidae), and "bully" (family Eleotri dae). That "k6kopu" has authentic roots in New Zealand Maori can be shown by its use in traditional Maori myth and legend, and also by the use ofthe same or similar words for fish elsewhere in Polynesia (e.g., "kokopu" in the Cook Islands and "o'o'pu" in Hawai'i). The etymology of "cockabully" can be traced back through "cockabulla" to an origin in "k6kopu," though the name "cock abully" is now applied to a group of fish that no evidence suggests were ever known to Maori as "k6kopu." "Bully," although appealing as a contraction of "cockabully," and thus with origins in "k6kopu," almost certainly had its ori gins in the English "bullhead," even though the Maori "k6kopu" was probably sometimes used for fish now known as "bully."

COMMON NAMES FOR species of animals and and are known then as "smolts"; the process plants emerge in the languages of peoples of color change is known as "smolting" (the who encounter and value them. These names Concise Oxford Dictionary does not admit often have origins in ancient times, and their this connection). meanings and etymologies sometimes are lost Maori, when they first arrived in New Zea in antiquity. An example of one ancient com land perhaps 1000-1200 yr ago (Simmons mon name, relevant to this discussion of the 1976, Salmond 1991), certainly brought an common names of some of New Zealand's ancient linguistic history with them, but with freshwater fishes, is "smelt," which is applied no prior application to New Zealand animals to Northern Hemisphere fishes of the family and plants. A few species probably were the Osmeridae. After European settlement, the same as those known from their homelands name was used for New Zealand and Aus in Polynesia and thus already "named." Many tralian fishes ofthe family Retropinnidae that acquired names transferred from similar spe resemble (and happen to be quite closely re cies familiar to them, as apparently occurred lated to) the Osmeridae (McDowall 1969, with place names (O'Regan 1992). Otherwise, Begle 1991). Smelt apparently derives from names had to be devised, being derived from the old Anglo-Saxon word "smeolt" meaning their characteristics (shapes, colors, behaviors, silvery (Regan 1911) and has nothing to do etc.). with the strong, cucumbery odor ofthese fishes The process of naming was probably little (McDowall 1990, McDowall et al. 1993). This different from that which occurred when Eu same word seems to have found its way into ropeans arrived in New Zealand much later a name for young salmon (Salmonidae) when and gave English names to the same fauna they become uniformly silver and lose their and flora, so that New Zealand came to have "parr" marks (dark blotches or bands across "beech" and "pine" trees, "robins" and the sides). At that stage they migrate to sea "tomtits" and so on, all perhaps resembling, but not necessarily closely related to, familiar species in Great Britain. The colonists were, of course, applying English names to species 1 Manuscript accepted 3 April 1995. 2 National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Re that already had long-used Maori names search, P. O. Box 8602, Christchurch, New Zealand. ("red pine" for "rimu," and "blue duck" for 117 118 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Volume 50, January 1996

"whio," etc.). Some common names used by nus McDowall) (Buck 1926, Williams 1990, the British settlers were existing Maori names Beattie 1994). (3) In modem parlance, fishes with English descriptors, such as "brown of the genus Gobiomorphus (Eleotridae) in kiwi" or "North Island weka." New Zealand are known as "bully," as noted These naming processes also apply to fresh above (Stokell 1955, McDowall 1990). (4) water fishes. Maori had numerous names for Estuarine and marine fishes of the family many freshwater fish species (Buck 1926, Best Tripterygiidae (the "triplefins") are widely 1929, Strickland 1990), but with the arrival and indiscriminately called "cockabully" of Europeans, English names were applied: (e.g., Graham 1956), though efforts are being "paraki" or "porohe" became known to Eu made to replace this name with "triplefins" ropeans as "smelt" [Retropinna retropinna (Paulin and Roberts 1992). (Richardson)], and "upokororo" as "gray ling" (Prototroctes oxyrhynchus Gunther). Early Usage and Debate Eventually, fish names also became of mixed origins, as in "banded kokopu" (Galaxias The origins and etymologies of these vari jasciatus Gray). ous common names, and their relationships to each other (if any), are poorly docu Some New Zealand Freshwater Fish Names mented. There are suggestions that some of them may have common roots, and that one Common names now in popular use for or another has etymological precedence in New Zealand's freshwater fishes are derived either Maori or English. from both Maori and English (McDowall Charles Heaphy (1842) referred to what 1990, Strickland 1990), and the origins of was probably a "giantkokopu" (Galaxias some names, whether derived from Maori argenteus [McDowall 1980, 1990)) as "bull but looking like English names, or vice versa, trout," whereas Meredith (1848) mentioned are sometimes unclear. "bulla-bulla." Is "bulla-bulla" a derivative of The confusion and inconsistency that has "bull-trout," or is it a distorted version of the attended the use of common names for New Maori "kokopu"? The nineteenth-century Zealand freshwater fishes is typified by three West Coast surveyor and explorer Charles names: "kokopu," "cockabully," and "bully": Douglas referred to what is now obviously (1) Some large freshwater fishes of the family a "giant kokopu" as "cock-a-bulla," but it Galaxiidae (including whitebait species) were is unclear whether he meant "kokopu" or known to some Maori as "kopu," or more "cockabully," if either. Or,given Douglas's often "kokopu," and this usage has been idiosyncratic spelling habits (McDowall adapted and carried forward into common 1980), it could have been both! However, English usage for several similar and related when Francis Clarke (1899), another West fish probably all known to Maori as "ko Coast surveyor, referred to "cock-a-bullies," kopu" (Strickland 1990, Williams 1990) (e.g., he was certainly referring to Gobiomorphus "giant kokopu" [Galaxias argenteus (Gme rather than Galaxias, but, again, the etymol lin)], "banded kokopu" [G. jasciatus], and ogy of his common name isn't clear, though "shortjawed kokopu" [Galaxias postvectis he clearly understood that Maori knew Ga Clarke (McDowall 1990)]). There are other laxias argenteus as "kokopu." The relation Maori names for these species in various ships of these usages certainly highlight the locations and at various life stages (see Best difficulties in identifying linguistic sources of 1929, Strickland 1990, Beattie 1994), but this vanous names. is not a concern in this paper. (2) "Kokopu" Amateur ichthyologist Gerald Stokell was also sometimes applied by Maori to (1949) argued that "The name 'bully' is not other species, including fish now commonly an abbreviation of 'cockabully' but of 'bull known as "giant bully" [Gobiomorphus go head'," bullhead referring to the European bioides (Valenciennes, in Cuvier and Va Collus gobio Linnaeus (Cottidae [Maitland lenciennes)] and "common bully" (G. cotidia- and Campbell 1992)). And he further as- Etymology ofNew Zealand Fish Names-McDoWALL 119 serted that "Some forty years. ago [the name Polynesia, probably came to New Zealand bully] seemed sufficiently well established for with Maori, was applied to very similar New its persistence to be assured, but at the pres Zealand eleotrids, but eventually came to be ent time it is being metamorphosed into applied more consistently to galaxiids, which "cockabuHy." are very different from gobies/eleotrids. Stokell seems to have been implying a re A similar Polynesian etymological connec cent origin for "cockabully" and its deriva tion appears in "inanga," the northern New tion from "bully" or "bullhead.." However, Zealand Maori name for the whitebait Ga given the late nineteenth-century usages, laxias maculatus (Jenyns); this is hardened to noted above, by Douglas (McDowall 1980) "inaka" by southern Maori (Ngai Tahu) of and Clarke (1899), the validity of Stokell's the South Island (Strickland 1990, Beattie argument is dubious. Stokell objected to the 1994), but appears as the much softer "hi use of "cockabully" because "... no-one nana" for small larval fishes that are caught seems able to ascribe a meaning to it or in running from the sea into rivers of Hawai'i, dicate its derivation," but this seems an just like New Zealand's whitebait "inanga" oversimplification" because some early Euro (Titcomb 1972). Coincidentally, these Hawai pean writers used "cock-a-bulla," "bul1a ian fishes are also gobies, so again the name bulla," and even "bull-head" for what Maori has shifted from that family in Polynesia to called "kokopu," and it seems that some galaxiids'in New Zealand. In Tahiti the spawn Maori called "kokopu" what Stokell claimed or small fry of fish are known as "inaa" should be called "bully." (Jaussen 1898, "frai de poisson").

Kokopu an Authentic Maori Name The Origins of"Cockabully" and "Bully" That the name "kokopu" is an authentic If it is accepted that "kokopu" has strong Maori name and has no derivations from authenticity in pre-European Polynesian English (such as being a Maori derivative of Maori (and there seems no doubt about this), "cockabully") can be deduced ftom several and given Douglas's early use of "cock-a sources. The word is used in Maori accounts bulIa" for one of the fish that some Maori oftraditional history (Locke 1883, Best 1929), called "kokopu," a fairly strong case seems and lakes and waterways are known variously evident for "cockabully" being derived from as Kaikokopu and Waikokopu, which seems the Maori "kokopu." Thomson and Ander to indicate a Maori interest in "kokopu" in ton (1921) certainly thought so, as did Ac such places. land (1951). Beattie (in a 1920 compilation The name is used elsewhere in Polynesia, published in 1994) quite explicitly connected though not necessarily for similar or related "cockabully" to alternative Ngai Tahu names fish species. The gobioid fish Eleotris fusca for "kokopu": "kokopara" and "kokopura," (Bloch & Schneider) is known as "kokopu" which he thought sounded like "kokobala" in the Cook Islands (Jellyman 1991), whereas and "kokobula"; Beattie concluded that the similar and related Awaous stamineus "hence we get the familiar "Cockabully" (Edouyx & Souleyet) and other gobioids known to all New Zealand boys." The Con are called "'o'opu" in Hawai'i (Titcomb cise Oxford Dictionary lists "cockabully," at 1972, Pukui et al. 1975, Kido et al. 1993); tributes it to New Zealand, and indicates that these fishes closely resemble New Zealand's it is derived from Maori. Phillipps (1951), Gobiomorphus gobioides, which was some whose use of common names for native fishes times called "kokopu" by Maori (Williams was highly erratic, argued that "cockabully" 1990, Beattie 1994). The Hawaiian" 'o'opu" was "invented" by the Europeans in the early seems equivalent to a softer, less guttural days and attributed the name to a merging of form of "kokopu": the "k" in "kokopu" has the English "bully" with the Maori "koko been replaced by a "glottal stop" (Pukui et pu." A simpler evolution of "kokopu" or al. 1975). Thus, "kokopu," used for gobies in "kokopara" variously through "bulla-bulla" 120 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Volume 50, January 1996 or "cock-a-bulla" to "cock-a-bully" and In conclusion, therefore, it appears that: finally "cockabully" seems more parsimo (1) "kokopu" is an authentic Polynesian and nious. All of this negates Stokell's (1955) Maori name that was applied to quite diverse assertion that "cockabully" has unknown native fishes in New Zealand, as well as in derivation or meaning. However, it also in other parts of Polynesia (in various forms), dicates that current application of "cock and has no derivations from English; (2) it is abully" to species of Tripterygiidae has no likely that "cockabully" is an English deriva historical precedent; I know of no reference tion of "kokopu"; and (3) "bully," although to Tripterygiidae as "kokopu." I can only superficially appealing as a contraction of assume that "cockabully" (derived from "cockabully" (and thus derived from the "kokopu" [if my argument is correct]) that Maori "kokopu"), is more likely a contrac was used for both Galaxias and Gobiomor tion of the English "bullhead." phus by early accounts (Buck 1926, Best 1929, Williams 1990) has "drifted" to Trip terygiidae. Perhaps this was partly through confusion or association with Gobiomorphus ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and the English name "bullhead," and per haps partly through Stokell's attempts to re DonJellyman and Sally Davismade helpful strict "bully" for use for Gobiomorphus and comments on this paper. to avoid the use of "cockabully" for this genus. Probably, "cockabully" became a euphonious and appealing popular name, with LITERATURE CITED lots of "character," to apply to any small, otherwise unknown fish. Its first explicit ap ACLAND, L. D. J. 1951. The early Canterbury plication to tripterygiids seems to have been runs (complete edition and glossary of sta by Thomson and Anderton (1921), in spite of tion words). Whitcombe & Tombs, Christ their apparent belief that the name is derived church. from "kokopu." BEATTIE, J. H. 1994. Traditional lifeways of The origins of the name "bully" seem rea the southern Maori: The Otago University sonably clear. Probably well before Doug Museum ethnological project, 1920. Uni las's "cock-a-bulla" (McDowall 1980) and versity of Otago/Otago Museum, Dune Clarke's (1899) "cock-a-bully," Powell (1870) din. and Hutton (1872) applied "bullhead" to BEGLE, D. P. 1991. Relationships of the os Gobiomorphus gobioides (a fish later called meroid fishes and the use ofreductive char "giant bully" by Stokell [1955]), so that a acters in phylogenetic analysis. Syst. Zool. fairly clear connection to the similar-looking 40: 33-53. English "bullhead" (Cottus gobio [Maitland BEST, E. 1929. Fishing methods and devices and Campbell 1992]) can be made, as Stokell of the Maori. Dom. Mus. Bull. 12: 1-230. (1955) argued. Phillipps (1924, 1926, 1927, BUCK, P. 1926. The Maori craft of netting. 1929) variously used "bulley," "bully," and Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 56: 597-646. "cockabully" for species of Gobiomorphus, CLARKE, F. E. 1899. Notes on New Zealand but given his inconsistent usage, this is not Galaxidae, more especially those of the a good basis for connecting "bully" and western slopes: with descriptions of new "cockabully." "Bully" thus seems to have species. Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 31: 78-91. come originally from "bullhead" and has no GRAHAM, D. H. 1956. A treasury of New connections to the Maori "kokopu" and its Zealand fishes, 2nd ed. Reed, Wellington. English derivative "cockabully," even though HEAPHY, C. 1842. Narrative of a residence Gobimorphus gobioides was occasionally in various parts of New Zealand. Smith, called "kokopu" by Maori and is now com Elder, London. monly called "giant bully" (Stokell 1955, Mc HUTTON, F. W. 1872. Catalogue with diag Dowall 1990). noses ofthe species. Pages 1-93 in Fishes of Etymology of New Zealand Fish Names-McDoWALL 121

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