elver

Etymology

Variant of eelfare, originally "brood of young eels", from Middle English *elfare, *elvare, from el (“eel”) + fare (“group of journeyers”). Equivalent to eel + fare. Liberman instead connects the second element of this word to a putative Old English suffix *-for(e), but there is no need to posit such a suffix when the traditional etymology suffices. Furthermore, such a suffix is not securely attested, and the spelling of the word's earliest attestation (as yele fare, ell vare) implies Middle English /aː/.

noun

1. A young eel.
   When these glass eels enter freshwater they transform again into elvers – miniature versions of the adult eels. 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 69