Cisco Is a Fish, Not Only a Company
A cisco is a freshwater whitefish of North American lakes. The name comes from an Ojibwe word, long before any company used it.
A cisco is a slender freshwater fish of the whitefish family, found in the lakes of North America. The name comes from an Ojibwe word for the fish, recorded in English by the 1840s — well over a century before the technology company that shares the spelling took its name from San Francisco. Ciscos were once the backbone of the Great Lakes fishery; several kinds have since become extinct or endangered.
- A freshwater whitefish. *A shoal of cisco.*
- Lake herring — the common alternative name. *Lake herring.*
- Coregonus — the genus. *A Coregonus species.*
- Ojibwe — the source language. *An Ojibwe word.*
- Whitefish — the wider family. *The whitefish family.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cisco | One cisco. |
| Plural | ciscoes | Netted ciscoes. |
| Plural | ciscos | Also used. |
| Alt name | lake herring | Lake herring. |
| Genus | Coregonus | Coregonus artedi. |
- Ciscoes spawn in late autumn.Biology.
- The lake herring fishery collapsed in the 1950s.History.
- The name comes from Ojibwe.Etymology.
Fish names from Indigenous languages
- Cisco — from Ojibwe
- Muskellunge — also Ojibwe, a large pike
- Tautog — from Narragansett
- Menhaden — from an Algonquian language
- Terrapin — Algonquian, a small turtle rather than a fish
From an Ojibwe word for the fish, possibly via Canadian French. English recorded it in the 1840s.
Is a cisco a herring?
No, despite the name lake herring. It belongs to the whitefish family, alongside salmon and trout.
Is the fish related to the company name?
No. The company is named after San Francisco. The fish name is a much older borrowing from Ojibwe.