roe

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small Eurasian deer of the genus Capreolus, now usually called a roe deer

   The Siberian roe changes from a reddish summer coat to a greyer winter coat.

2. 2
   noun

   the mass of eggs in the ovary of a fish or certain marine invertebrates, or the released eggs themselves

   The chef served the smoked fish roe on small pieces of toast.

3. 3
   noun

   the milt or sperm of a male fish, also called soft roe

   The recipe used soft roe from a male herring rather than fish eggs.

Common collocations

• salmon roe Noun + noun

Two native homonyms converged in spelling. The deer name comes from Old English ra or raha and related Germanic names for the roe deer, perhaps from a root meaning 'spotted.' The egg sense comes through Middle English from a Germanic word represented by Old Norse hrogn, 'fish spawn.'

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images