fishgirl

Noun

fishgirl (plural fishgirls)

1. A girl who catches, prepares, or sells fish.
   • The next new and characteristic objects that presented themselves, as we went up the quay, were the fishwomen, or fishgirls rather—for they were all young—coming down with their small nets and net frames on their shoulders, looking as stout and resolute as men; […]1836, Orville Dewey, chapter VIII, in The Old World and the New; or, A Journal of Reflections and Observations Made on a Tour in Europe. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC...
   • You can see the sailors knitting there. And the old fishgirls in the Jersey.1939 July, Dylan Thomas, “Old Garbo”, in Robert Herring, editor, Life and Letters To-day, volume 22, number 23, London: […] The Brendin Publishing Company […], →OCLC, page 73
2. A mermaid.
   • According to her own best calculation, Black Pearl had recently turned eighteen years of age, at the beginning of the summer. She knew, therefore, that she had not very many years of life remaining. Mermaids, fishgirls, of her age never did.1989 July, Fred Saberhagen, “Prologue”, in Farslayer’s Story (Lost Swords; 4), New York, N.Y.: Tor Fantasy, →ISBN, page 2
   • The Nereids have become sea-nymphs, given a fish’s tail they would be mermaids, as one may see them represented, though mermaids or fishgirls exist in the traditional undatable art of the Inuit, who I think invented them.1997, Peter Levi, chapter 7, in Horace: A Life, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 1998, →ISBN, page 156