A young male apprentice or worker engaged in the fishing profession.
Compound of 'fisher' (Old English 'fiscere') and 'boy' (Middle English 'boi', origin uncertain but possibly from Old French). Commonly used in 19th-century fishing communities to describe young apprentices.
In 19th-century England, fisherboys started training as young as age 8, and their life expectancy was shorter than miners — they faced drowning, hypothermia, and dangerous equipment daily, yet their labor was essential to feed entire nations.
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