sardine, noun

Origin:
Calque formed on Afrikaans sardyn.
1. Especially on the east coast: the pilchard Sardinops ocellatus of the Clupeidae; sardyn; shad sense 2.
Note:
In Smith and Heemstra’s Smiths’ Sea Fishes (1986), the name ‘South African pilchard’ is used for this species.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 424Sardine,..a small species of herring — Clupea ocellata — very abundant on the coast at times.
1966 Daily News 12 Sept. 5Feeding on the sardines are large numbers of garrick and shad.
1973 E. Prov. Herald 5 July 21The ‘sardines’ are the same as the pilchards which are found in vast shoals off the West Coast...The most acceptable theory of the origin of the Natal ‘sardines’ is that they are breakaway shoals of the West Coast concentrations which migrate round the Cape coast and up to Natal waters.
1981 E. Prov. Herald 9 July 9In the south and south-east Cape..the shoals of sardines (they are actually pilchards) pass our coast on their way north and are followed by shoals of game fish.
1990 Weekend Post 30 June (Leisure) 4S. ocellata is the name given to the elusive shoals of sardines, little silver fish which tumble on to Natal and Transkei beaches during their (still mysterious) northward migration.
2. Special Combinations
sardine fever, the excitement generated by the annual appearance inshore of these fish in large numbers;
sardine run, the annual northward movement of these fish in huge shoals, especially off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, accompanied by predators and other fishes; also figurative (see quotation 1980).
1980 S. Afr. Panorama July 28Every year in mid-winter South Africans along the South and North coasts of Natal are gripped by ‘sardine fever’.
1982 Daily Dispatch 25 June 1Sardine fever hit the Port Edward area last night...‘Sometimes I wish the sardine run never happened — it’s absolute chaos.’
1984 Natal Mercury in S. Afr. Digest 13 July 24Sardine fever! They came to the Natal South Coast with sacks and baskets, light trucks and cars...The little fish were paying their yearly visit.
1990 Sunday Times 1 July 27Every year she faces sardine fever with fear and trepidation.
1955 C. Horne Fisherman’s Eldorado 75Katonkel..the barracuda of Natal, fish which stir anglers on the Natal south coast to intense activity in the annual sardine run.
1957 S. Schoeman Strike! 16The annual ‘sardine run’ along the Pondoland and Natal South Coasts during June each year, is a typical example of the migratory habits of fishes towards and along our coasts.
1978 Sunday Times 2 July (Mag. Sect.) 3Racing, sugar cane and the sardine run. Yes friends, it’s your actual Durbs, somnolent in winter sunshine.
1980 Rand Daily Mail 5 Dec. 1Within hours of schools closing for the Christmas holidays, Transvaal yesterday started their annual ‘sardine run’ to the country’s coastal areas.
1981 E. Prov. Herald 9 July 9The Natal sardine run which occurs every winter remains one of the world’s unsolved natural mysteries and is a happening unique to South Africa.
1992 Dudley & Cliff in Afr. Wildlife Vol.46 No.6, 258Large numbers (several thousands) of bottlenose dolphins visit Natal waters from the south in association with the annual ‘sardine run’.
1992 R. Rudden in Sunday Times 17 May 15They (sc. the dolphins) were following the annual so-called sardine run (the fish are really pilchards) and became entangled in the nets before suffering slow and horrifying deaths.
1993 R. Van der Elst Guide to Common Sea Fishes 155It (sc. the Cape yellowtail) is mainly an inhabitant of Atlantic waters, but each winter it follows the pilchard migrations, or ‘sardine run’, up the East Coast to Transkei and Natal.
Especially on the east coast: the pilchard Sardinops ocellatus of the Clupeidae; sardyn; shad sense 2.
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SARB, nounn.sardyn, nounn.
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