mackerel/ˈmæk(ə)ɹəl/EtymologyFrom Middle English mackerell, macrell, macrelle, makarell, makerel, makerell, makerelle, makrel, makrell, makyrelle, from Old French maquerel. Further origin unknown.nounCertain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,Certain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,; Typically Scomber scombrus in the British isles.“[…] you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.”A true mackerel, any fish of tribe Scombrini (Scomber spp., Rastrelliger spp.)Certain other similar small fish in families Carangidae, Gempylidae, and Hexagrammidae.A regular pattern, similar to fish scales, of undulating small clouds with sky visible between them.“a mackerel sky”A pimp; also, a bawd.“1483, William Caxton, Magnus Cato, quoted in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, publ. by John Russell Smith (1847), page 536. […] nyghe his hows dwellyd a maquerel or bawde […]”