paugie

Meaning

Noun

• A fish, Stenotomus chrysops (species), the porgy.

Origin

• Shortened form of the Narragansett word mishcup ("porgies", plural). Another shortening of the same word yields the synonym scup. The full word was borrowed as scuppaug. The singular was borrowed as mishcup.
• Possibly reinforced by its similarity to porgy, especially in non-rhotic accents.