''Molva'' is a genus of

lotid The Lotidae are a family of cod-like fishes commonly known as lings or rocklings. They are found in the Arctic Ocean, Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. Except for a few species of ''Gaidropsarus'', all are restricted to the Northern Hemisphe ...

fishes, the lings, with these currently recognized species: * '' Molva dypterygia'' ( Pennant, 1784) (blue ling) * '' Molva macrophthalma'' (

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

, 1810) (Spanish ling) * ''

Molva molva The common ling (''Molva molva''), also known as the white ling or simply the ling, is a large member of the family Lotidae, a group of cod-like fishes. It resembles the related rocklings, but it is much larger and has a single barbel. This spe ...

'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...

) (common ling)

Etymology

The generic name derives ultimately from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''morua'' ("codfish"), which became ''morlue'' in

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

and then ''molva'' in Provencal and ''molve'' in

Modern French French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

. Another theory derives it from Breton ''mor'' ("sea") and Old French ''luz'' ("

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

").

References

Lotidae {{Gadiformes-stub