brandling

English

Etymology

brand +‎ -ling

Noun

brandling (countable and uncountable, plural brandlings)

1. The young or parr of the salmon, so named from its markings being, as it were, branded.
2. A small, red earthworm, Eisenia fetida, used for bait in freshwater fishing.
   • 1939, George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, part 2, chapter 4:

     And you also find another kind of worm called a brandling, which is striped and smells like an earwig, and which is very good bait for perch.

References

• Brandling in the 1921 edition of Collier's Encyclopedia.