leister

Etymology

From earlier leyster, lister, perhaps via Middle English *lēster, *līster, from Old Norse ljóstr (“leister”), from ljósta (“to smite, strike; to hit, strike (with an arrow or spear)”), from Proto-Germanic *leustaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *lew-s- (“to loosen (by knocking)”); the word is cognate with Danish lyster (“fish spear, gig, leister”), Icelandic ljósta (“to hit, strike”), Norwegian Bokmål lyster (dialectal Norwegian lioster), Swedish ljuster.

noun

1. (fishing) A spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon.
   The methods of catching the ſalmon in this pariſh are ſimilar to thoſe deſcribed in the ſtatiſtical account of Dornock, p. 15. excepting that there is no raiſe-net fiſhing, and that the leiſter is only about 10 or 12 feet long, conſequently better calculated for throwing to any diſtance. 1792, William Wright, “Number XII. Parish of Newabbey. (Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.)”, in John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland.[…], volume II, Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William Creech; [et al.], →OCLC, footnote, pages 132–133
   Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed. 1843, William Scrope, chapter IX, in Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed;[…], London: John Murray,[…], →OCLC, pages 199–200
   Andy, who had been a moment behind getting his leister out of the fish he had killed, came up, and both he and Jock made several random strokes, when Jock, in his eagerness, slipped his foot, and fell headforemost into the water, the leister flying from his hand just as I caught sight of the fish they were after, lying close in to the bank; […] 1850, “Agricola” [pseudonym], “‘Burning the Water’—A Tweedside Sketch”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume 116, London: Published at the office, 34, Norfolk Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 57
   Old Sandy fished down the river, but he could kill no more salmon that night, […] He missed one; wounded another on the tail; and struck a third on the rigback, where no leister can pierce a fish, till he made him spring above water. 1865, “the Ettrick Shepherd” [pseudonym; James Hogg], Thomas Thomson, “The Siege of Roxburgh”, in The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd.[…], new edition, volume I, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh: Blackie & Son,[…], →OCLC, chapter VII, page 632, column 1
   The leister is a spear composed of four or more barbed prongs, something like the manure fork or graip of the agriculturist, and firmly fixed to a light straight pole about twelve or fourteen feet in length. […] The leisterer looks into the river to find a fish, he spears it if he can and must keep it from wriggling off his leister after it is pierced. 26 April 1878, “a special correspondent” [pseudonym], “River Poaching on the Borders.—No. IV.”, in The Fishing Gazette, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, →OCLC, page 194, column 1
   Although leisters and harpoons cannot be called the most important implement in the fishing economy of the North American Indians, they are probably of more value as evidence of culture-historical movements than most of the other fishing artifacts, and for two reasons. 1952, University of California Publications in Geography, volume 9, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 108
   The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole. 2004, Jørgen Skaarup, “Artefacts”, in Jørgen Skaarup, Ole Grøn, translated by Anne Bloch Jøorgensen and David Earle Robinson, Møllegabet II: A Submerged Mesolithic Settlement in Southern Denmark (BAR International Series; 1328), Oxford: Archaeopress, archived from the original on 2018-12-20, section V.a.4.2 (Leister Prongs), page 88, column 2
   These Aborigines possessed the entire Tasmanian toolkit plus hundreds of additional specialized tools, including a fine array of bone tools, leisters, spear throwers, boomerangs, mounted adzes (for wood working), many multipart tools, a variety of nets for birds, fish, and wallabies, sewn-bark canoes with paddles, string bags, ground-edge axes, and wooden bowls for drinking. 2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 12, in The Secret of Our Success[…], Princeton: Princeton University Press

verb

1. (transitive) To catch or spear (fish) with a leister.
   We once knew a notorious salmon poacher, who, on one of his excursions, saw a pair of salmon spawning in a stream. He leistered the male from the side of the female, and as soon as she missed her partner, she retired from the spawning-bed into the pool below the ford, and very soon returned with another male, which the poacher also leistered. 1848, Andrew Young, The Natural History & Habits of the Salmon,[…], Wick, Caithness: Published by Peter Reid. …, →OCLC, page 17
   You are quite correct, sir, […] in what you say about the quantity of oil in the heads of these fish [gurnets or gurnards]. […] [T]he heads [of the fish are] placed with their mouths upward, and a small quantity of tow placed in each mouth. When they [the poachers] reach the stream where they are to leister the salmon, the tow is lighted, the fire immediately communicates with the lips of the fish, and a beautiful clear light is emitted, which continues to burn for a considerable time. Sometimes also a single head, thus prepared and dried, is fixed at the end of a stick, and is used as a torch, when a poacher goes leistering single-handed. 1865, [Walter Frederick Campbell], “A Norman Breakfast and a Stroll”, in John Francis Campbell, editor, Life in Normandy: Sketches of French Fishing, Farming, Cooking, Natural History and Politics Drawn from Nature, 3rd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, →OCLC, pages 50–51
   No sport (hare-hunting excepted) gave more delight to the master of Abbotsford than the leistering of a salmon by the light of a pine-wood torch in the early part of a long winter's night, when a feast on some occasions would be improvised, a fire would be kindled, and a kettle would be got ready; […] 1890, “Ellangowen” [pseudonym; James Glass Bertram], “Trout and Sport in the Borders”, in Out-door Sports in Scotland: Deer Stalking, Grouse Shooting, Salmon Fishing, Golfing, Curling, &c.[…], 2nd edition, London, Calcutta: W[illiam] H[oughton] Allen & Co.,[…], →OCLC, pages 310–311