Scrod is common?

[Binkie]

I must admit that I was gobsmacked by the common word I missed yesterday. Scrod ? SCROD ?? A young cod? Gimme a break !!

[birdy]

It's on lots of restaurant menus here.  Was the dictionary definition a young cod?  On the menu it means just an unidentified mild white fish.

[rogue_mother]

Scrod is well known in the northeastern part of the United States. As Birdy says, while it may technically refer to a young cod, on menus and ingredient lists it more usually means generic mild white fish, probably so that the menu or label doesn't have to be changed depending on whatever is available at that particular time.

I can understand that scrod might not be commonly known outside of the US, since it is mostly found in the North Atlantic, and some of the countries where cod is eaten don't speak English. There is also a variety of cod found off the Pacific coast of the US, but it is probably not as widely consumed.

[anonsi]

I'm going with Binks on this that I've never heard (or seen) scrod used.  If it's a white fish, our menus say "white fish."

[Binkie]

Thanks, Anonsi . Now I don't feel quite so ignorant!

[Alan W]

This topic got somewhat overshadowed by a topic on the general issue of common and rare words, partly inspired by the scrod issue.

To respond to the specific question, I agree that the word is uncommon outside the US. In the British National Corpus, it gets one hit, whereas the Corpus of Contemporary American English yields 35 hits. And from what RM and anonsi say, it seems to be regional within the US.

(I think I knew the word, as designating a fish of some kind, probably from Nero Wolf novels.)

I will derank this word to rare.

[anonsi]

I will derank this word to rare.

See? Derank totally has its uses.

[Alan W]

I wrote that just for you, anonsi.

[Binkie]