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WARNING! I have a marlinspike and I’m not afraid to use it!
a purple paracord bracelet in progress with a metal marlinspike, which looks a bit like a dental implement, threaded through some of the loops.
in reply to Sarah Brown

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
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Marlins beware! (False friend etymology there; it’s actually from a root cognate with “mooring”)
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@Alexandra Lanes citation needed? Wikipedia reckons the Marlin is so-named because it has a marlinspike on its face.
@Alexandra Lanes
in reply to Sarah Brown

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
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Ah so it’s marlin < marlinspike fish < marlinspike < marlin < moor
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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Alisdair is right. It’s from marl, which is thin cord used for whipping (securing the end of a spliced rope).

It’s not related to mooring, other tha.lb mooring lines would indeed be marled.

Unknown parent

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
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@A_C_McGregor This does get confusing (although my brain is not in tiptop operation today). Wiktionary lists marline < MLGer marling < MDutch marlijn (“cord”) < marlen (“secure, fasten”), frequentative of maren (“to moor”) < Proto-Germanic *mairōną (“to moor, fasten to”), from PIE *mer-. But for the cover meaning of marl it has < ME marle < OFr marle, < LL margila, diminutive of marga (“marl”). I may have to find a real dictionary.
@Alisdair Calder McGregor
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Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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Yup. And you used the marline spike, or marline spike, to work it. Then contraction happened and it became “marlinspike”.

But yes, it is indeed named after Marl Line, and the fish appears to be named after the tool.

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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ok, I see the confusion. It’s the fasten part, not the moor part. Marl line, which we now call whipping, is used to fasten the end of a rope, to stop it coming unwoven.
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